
Copyright^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



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tft- 



William L.^tone. 




pRTl K^Y©HSTOK ^BEWIO^K 



7fe. 



HISTORY 



OF 



NEW YOEK CITY 



FROM 



THE DISCOVEKY 



TO 



THE PRESENT DAY, 

BY 

WILLIAM L. STONE, 

AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON, BART."; 

" LIFE AND WRITINGS OF COL. WM. L STONE " ; 

ETC., ETC., ETC. 



"HUMANI NIHIL ALIENUM.' 



NEW YORK : 
VIRTUE & YORSTON 

12 DEY STREET. 

1872. 



En'ered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1372. by 

VIRTUE & YORSTON, 
In the Oflice of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington 



bs^ 



Anderson iT--' Ramsay, Printers, 28 Frankfort Street, -V. 



TO 



HORACE GREELEY and MARSHALL 0. ROBERTS, 



REPRESENTATIVE MEN 



NEW YORK CITY, 

AS A SLIGHT ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE MANY COURTESIES 
WHICH HE HAS RECEIVED FROM THEM, 



®Ijts Volume 



RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 



BY THEIR FRIEND, 



THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 

Perhaps, in the history of the world, no other city 
has risen, in the same space of time, to such pre- 
eminent commercial importance as the city of New 
York. To the student, the merchant, the philosopher, 
and the statesman, every incident connected with its 
rise and progress must be of the greatest interest. 
Histories of the city of New York have been before 
this submitted to the public, but it is believed that 
none of them have met the requirements of a work 
like the present, — one which, while it aims to be an 
authority for the future historian, shall be desirable 
for general reading. 

In the preparation of this volume, the author 
has derived very great aid from the unpublished 
manuscripts of his father, the author of " Brant " and 
" Red-Jacket." Many of these consist of conversations 



yj PREFACE 



and narratives taken down by him from the lips of 
men who took a prominent part in the public affairs 
of the city from the period of the American Revo- 
lution down to the year 1844. Conversations, for 
example, with Aaron Burr, Chancellor Livingston, 
Nicholas Bayard, Chief - Justice Yates, John Jay, 
Robert Morris, Morgan Lewis, William Maxwell, 
Robert Troup, Josiah Ogden Hoffman, Dr. Francis, 
and others, contain much that is new and especially 
valuable, not only to the historical scholar, but to 
the mere lover of curious and entertaining reading. 

In this work will be found, entire, three valuable 
contributions to the history of the city. These are, 
first, the narrative of the Grand Erie Canal Cele- 
bration, written, at the request of the Corporation 
of the City of New York, by the late Colonel 
William L. Stone ; second, an account of the Pro- 
cession in Honor of the Adoption of the Federal 
Constitution in 1788, and Washington's Reception 
and Inauguration Ball, in 1789, by the same author ; 
and, third, Reminiscences of New York City, by the 
late Gulian C. Verplanck, first given under the nom 
de plume of " Francis Herbert," in the Talisman for 
1829-'30. These narratives, alone, should make this 
work of particular value, since, as is well known to 



PREFACE. v ij 

book-collectors, they can only be obtained with diffi- 
culty and at a high price. 

The writer himself, also, has enjoyed peculiar 
advantages of a similar kind for gaining accurate and 
extended knowledge of events which, although of 
comparatively recent date, are fast fading from the 
minds of the present generation. Of these may be 
mentioned the Great Fires of 1811 and 1835, the 
Reception of General Lafayette in 1824 ; and the 
" Trinity Church," " Five Points," " Flour," and 
" Stone-cutters' " Riots — the facts of which were in 
part communicated to him by one who was an 
active participant in those scenes, — the late Gabriel 
P. Disosway, of Staten Island, the well-known anti- 
quarian and local writer. 

The author has likewise derived much assistance 
from conversations held with General Prosper M. Wet- 
more, Chief-Justice C. P. Daly, the late venerable David 
T. Valentine, — for many years clerk of the Common 
Council, — and from the writings of Colonel Thomas 
F. Devoe, Mr. Asher Taylor, and Miss Mary L, 
Booth. His thanks are also due to President James 
B. Angell, of the University of Michigan ; Colonel 
Silas W. Burt, Franklin Burdge, Esq., Dr. Joseph 
W. Richards, and Manuel C. Jordan, of New York 



viii PREFACE. 

city ; Dr. E. P. Buffett, Lewis A. Brigham, Esq., and 
B. VV. Throckmorton, Esq., of Bergen, N. J. ; Waldo 
M. Potter, Esq., of Davenport, Iowa ; and Hon. 
Judge C. S. Lester and Dr. R. L. Allen, of Saratoga 
Springs, N. Y., for valuable suggestions. Nor must 
he forget to make special mention of the kindness of 
Lucien B. Stone, Esq., the well-known Broad-street 
banker, for assistance in gathering important statistics. 
In the hope that, whatever defects there may be 
in his work, he will, at least, be credited with the 
desire of performing his task conscientiously, the 
author submits this volume to the kind consideration 
of his fellow-citizens. 

William L. Stone. 



CONTENTS. 



FIRST PERIOD. 



1598-1674. 



CHAPTER I. 

1598—1647. 

Hendrick Hudson not the Discoverer of the Island of Manhattan— Topography 
of New York Island — The Dutch make Manhattan the Depot of the Fur Tradh 
in America — The States-General encourage Emigration — The Dutch and 
Iroquois conclude a Treaty of Peace— The New Netherland, with Thirty 
Families, arrives at New Amsterdam — Peter Minuit is appointed Director- 
General of New Netherland— The Inhahitants turn their attention to Ship- 
building — Minuit returns to Holland— Arrival of Wouter Van Twiller — His 
Incompetency— The " Staple Right " granted— Arrival of Governor Kieft — 
Van Twiller drinks confusion to the English Government — Ferry estab- 
lished across the East River — The Fur Trade keeps pace with the prosperity 
of the Town — The Patroon System a failure — Guns and Powder forbidden 
to be sold to the Indians— Salaries of the early Officials— The Patroons give 
fresh trouble — The Colonists neglect Agriculture — The Streets begin to be 
better laid out — Wampum, and a description of it — More attention paid to the 
English Language — Rise in the price of Beaver Skins — Interference of New 
England Adventurers — Kieft becomes involved in an Indian War — Illicit 
Trade carried on at Albany — Death of Kieft. 

CHAPTER II. 

1G47— 1G74. 

Governor Stuy vesant arrives at Manhattan — Finds the Colony in a " low con- 
dition" — Improves the Town^rrjide__opened to Private Persons— Regu- 
lation of Taverns — No Person to carry on Business unless he takes the Oath 
of Allegiance— Naval War breaks out between England and the United 



xii CONTENTS 

— Ferry Street ceded to the City — Moravian Chapel built ia Fulton Street — 
First Merchants' Exchange erected at the foot of Broad Street — St. George's 
Chapel built — Its History — Origin of the yearly Appropriation for the City 
Manual. 

CHAPTER V. 

1753—1765. 

Arrival of Sir Danvers Osborne as Governor — James De Lancey commissioned 
Lieutenant-Governor — Mr. Clinton Insulted — Suicide of Sir Danvers Os- 
borne — Causes which led to the act — De Lancey assumes the Reins of Gov- 
ernment — Want of harmony in the General Assembly — The Province of 
New York divided into two Sects, under the lead of De Lancey and Liv- 
ingston — The People of New York raise Money with which to Found a 
College — The majority of the Trustees of the College Episcopalians — 
Trouble arises on this account — Mr. Livingston writes against the Man- 
agement of the College in the Independent Reflector — Efforts to prevent 
the Incorporation of Columbia College fruitless — The granting of its 
Cbarter displeases the People — De Lancey endeavors to assuage their 
Resentment — Urges the passage of several popular Acts — Sir Charles Har- 
dy arrives as the successor of Clinton — Becomes tired of an inactive life, 
and takes command of the Expedition against Lewisburg — Lord Loudon 
Outrages the citizens of New York — Soldiers billeted upon the people — 
Death of Chief-Justice De Lancey — Particulars of his Death — Character 
of Mr. De Lancey — General Amherst visits New York, and receives an 
Ovation — City illuminated on the Occasion — Work of improving the City 
advances rapidly — Light-house erected on Sandy Hqok — Two Ferries estab- 
lished — The first Stage starts from New York for Philadelphia — Time 
three days — Second Stage advertised for same Route — Stages begin their 
Trips between New York and Albany — The Line extended to old Fort 
Schuyler (Utica) — Contrast between that and the Present Day — The Meth- 
odists first organize in the City — Several new Streets Opened. 

CHAPTER VI. 

1761—1770. 

The Government Devolves on Dr. Colden — Major-General Monckton Appointed 
Governor — Sails from New York, leaving the Government in the hands of 
Dr. Colden — The Administration of Governor Colden — An unfortunate 
Appointment — " Writs of Assistance" — James Otis — His Speech — Living- 
ston, Scott, and Smith do battle for the People — New York follows the 
wake of her Puritan Neighbors — Colden entertains doubts of the Result — 
Grenville and North devise the Plan of raising a Revenue by the Sale of 
Stamps — Troubles in Massachusetts — The People of New York bitterly 
oppose the Stamp Act — Organization of the Sons of Liberty — Compel the 
Stamp Distributors to Resign — Posting of Placards — Colden is terrified — 
Shuts himself up in the Fort — He and Lord Bute are hung in Effigy — Col- 
den's Carriage burnt — Arrival of the new Governor, Sir Henry Moore, Bart. 
— The Corporation offer him the Freedom of the City, which he refuses 
unless on Stamped Paper — Colden retires in disgust to his Country-seat — 
More Trouble from the Sons of Liberty — They compel a Stamp-Distributor 
to resign — Hold Correspondence with other Cities — Repeal of the Stamp 
Act — New York rejoices — Mast erected to George III — Opening Speeeh 
of Governor Moore — Troubles in Dutchess County — The Rioters brought to 
Reason — Methodist Denomination organized — First Medical School organ- 
ized — New Streets Opened — The British Cabinet regret the Repeal of the 
Stamp Act — New York declines Obedience to the Mutiny Act — The Func- 



CONTENTS. Xlll 

tions of the New York Assembly annulled-Boston sympathizes with 
New York-Writs issued for a new Assembly-The Assembly firm in 
maintaining its Constitutional Rights-Sir Henry Moore dissolves the 
LsemUy-The new Election hotly contested-Death of Governor Moore 
_Dr CoWen assumes the reins of Government for the third time-Active 
Measures taken by the Sons of Liberty to oppose the Mutiny Act-Large 
Assembly in the " Fields" (present City ^Hal 1 Park)-Hat red ^ be twee* the 
Soldiers and Sons of Liberty-Battle of Golden Hill-First Blood shed 
in the American Revolution at Golden Hill. 

CHAPTEE VII. 

1770—1788. 

John Earl of Dunmore, succeeds Sir Henry Moore as Governor-Description of 
the new Governor in a Letter to Sir William Johnson-Sir William Tryon 
Bart , succeeds Dunmore as Governor and Commander-in-Chief— N ew York 
Hospital Founded-Meeting of the Assembly-The Governor is rendered 
independent of the Colony-The Sons of Liberty hold a Pub he Meeting- 
Tea Commissioners resign-Tryon concedes a little to Public Opimon- 
The Assembly do not share in the Indignation of the People-Tryon s 
Administration comes to an End-Profound Tranquility prevails-The 
Sternfat length breaks-The Nancy boarded in New York Bay and her 
Car«ro of Tea thrown overboard-New York forms a Provincial Congress- 
Tryon sails for England-General Condition of Affairs- Washington visits 
New York-Honors paid to him- Washington places the City under Com- 
mand of General Schuyler, and departs for Boston-The Assembly ask the 
Crown for a Redress of Grievances-Description of the principal ^Fortifica- 
tions erected at this time for the Defense of the City-The British Army land 
on Long Island-Battle of Long Island-The Americans effect a masterlj 
Retreat across the East River to New York Island-Indignation of Wash- 
ington— Battle of Harlem-Fort Washington captured— Fort Lee evacu- 
ated- Washington retreats across New Jersey-The British in Possession 
of the City— Great Fire— Suspicion of it having been caused by Design- 
Ground covered by the Fire-Trinity Church and the Lutheran Chapel 
destroyed— The History of New York City during its Occupation by the 
British not one that Americans can recall with Pleasure-The old Sugar- 
bouse-The Jersey Prison-ship-Prison-pens of the City-Crue ties in- 
flicted upon the Prisoners-Account by an Eye-witness of the terrible Out- 
rages perpetrated on the Americans-The British Officers and their Wives 
meanwhile, pass their time in Frivolity-View of the interior and Social 
Life of New York at this time by Mrs. General Riedesel-Scarcity of \\ ood 
-Remarkablv cold Winter- Wall Street lined with Trees- 1 he House 
N Tl Toadway the Head-quarters of the British Officers-T he Beekman 
House (site of the present Journal of Commerce Building) the Head-quar- 
ters of the British Naval Officers-The British evacuate New York- W ash- 
ington enters the City— The American Flag run up on the Battery. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

1725—1787. 

History of the Newspapers published in New York City before and during the 
Revolution-New York totte-New York Weekly Journal-Evening Post 
-New York Jfcrcury-New York Chronicle-Xw York Journal, or Gen- 
eral Advertiser-- Parker's Gazette— Independent Gazette-Bimngtons New 

Y,'rh r/«6«V-New York lioyal Gazette-Xevr York Gazette and Univer- 
sal Advertiser— The Press of New York City. 



xiv CONTENTS 

THIRD PEEIOD 

1783-187S. 



CHAPTER I. 

1783—1788. 

The Position of New York among the Colonies — Financial Distress at the clos>> 
of the War — New York City celebrates with a magnificent Procession the , 
Adoption of the Federal Constitution — Full Description of the Procession- ' 
It is dismissed at the Bowling Green with a Salute. 

CHAPTER II. 

1788—1795. 

Winter Festivities of 1788-1789 succeeded by matters of a Public Nature — The 
Senate and House of Representatives assemble in the City preparatory to 
Inauguration of Washington as President of the United States — The Mem- 
bers from the different States arrive slowly — Arrival of Richard Henry 
Lee, of Virginia — John Langdon elected President of the Senate pro tern., 
and Samuel A. Otis, Secretary— A Committee wait on Washington at Mt. 
Vernon — Washington repairs to New York— His Triumphal Entrance into 
New York — Honors paid him — The day one of unmingled Joy — Inaugura 
tion of President Washington — Minute Details — Chancellor Livingston 
administers the Oath of Office — Washington delivers his Inaugural Address 
— Feelings of a Gentleman present on the Occasion — Washington issues a 
Proclamation for a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer — The Day closes by a 
Displav of Fiie-works — Description of the Illumination of various Private 
Residences during the Evening — The different Transparencies, &c, &c. — 
The President occupied for seseral days in receiving the Congratulatory 
and Official Calls — Mrs. Washington arrives in New York to attend the 
« Inauguration Ball — She is met by her Husband at Elizabethtown-Point — 
UFullTind minute Description of the Ball— The People who attended— The 
Toilets worn on the Occasion — Mrs. General Knox enters the Ball-room 
with President Washington and his Wife, with the Intention of being 
seated on the same Sofa — Meets with Disappointment, as the Sofa is not 
large enough for three — The French Minister gives a. fete in honor of 
Washington — Dresses of the Ladies on that Occasion — The Levees of 
Washington far more select than those of his Successors — Dignified Man- 
ners of Lady Washington — Personal Appearance of Lady Washington — 
Her Levees close at Nine ! — Late Hours at that time not necessary to Fash- 
ion — Letter from John Pintard describing Mrs. Washington's first Levee 
<m New- Year's Day, 1790 — Remark of General Washington upon the Pro- 
priety of keeping up the Old Dutch Custom of New-Year's Day. 

CHAPTER III. 

1792—1799. 

Tontine Coffee-house built— Formation of the Order of St. Tammany— Origin 
of the Name St. Tammany — Visit of the Creek Indians to the Tammany 



CONTENTS. XV 

Wigwam— The Society establishes a Museum— The City visited by the 
Yellow-fever in 17t)5 — Destructive Fire — City again visited by Yellow- 
fever — Country People refuse to bring Produce into the City — Patriotic 
Incident of the Fever. 

CHAPTER IV. 

1800—1818. 

/ The opening of the Nineteenth Century finds New York City vastly improved 
— Population of the City — Reade and Duane Streets laid out — A Canal cut 
through the present Canal Street — The situation of the Streets at 
this time— Society and Social Life of the City at this period — The old 
Theater in John Street — Mount Vernon Gardens— Bayard's Spring — 
Haunts of a Visitor at that time — The Bar of New York then distinguished 
for its excellence — Murder of Juliana Elmore Sands — Levi Weeks 
indicted and tried for the Murder — Hamilton, Burr, and Brockholst 
Livingston engaged for the Defense — Remarkable anecdote of Burr 
— De Witt Clinton appointed Mayor— Is succeeded by Colonel Marinus 
Willett — The Fire of 1804 — Historical Society founded — Public School 
Society determined on — Hamilton Killed by Burr in a duel — Steam Navi- 
gation successfully introduced— Fulton undeserving of praise— His In- 
competence — To Fitch belongs the honor — The first Steam-boat starts for 
Albany — Anecdote of Thurlow Weed— His feelings on seeing a Steam-boat 
for the first time — De Witt Clinton again appointed Mayor — His con- 
scientious discharge of his official duties — Instrumental in obtaining from 
the Legislature of the State of New York an Appropriation for the Defense 
of the Harbor — Trinity Church Riot— Verplanck's part in it — War of 1812 
— Noble Conduct of the Citizens of New York — Clinton prevents Riotous 
Demonstrations— Hard Times— The effect of the announcement of Peace — 
Delirious joy of the Citizens on the event — Description of it by Francis 
Wayland, who was in the City at the time — Removal of the Remains of 
General Montgomery from Quebec to New York — Grand Ball given to 
Andrew Jackson at the City Hotel — Uniform of the Fourteenth Regiment 
—Severity of the Winter of 1820-21— The Bay frozen over, and People 
Cross to Staten Island on the Ice — Sufferings of the Poor — Subscriptions 
taken up in the Churches in their behalf. 

CHAPTER V. 

1819-1825. 

Vellow-fever in the City — Extracts from Letters of Colonel William L. Stone 
describing its ravages — Disappearance of the Fever — The Custom-house 
and Banks Return to the City — Visit of General Lafayette to the City — 
Detailed Account of his Reception — Erie Canal Celebration — History of 
the Enterprise — The New York Commercial Advertiser gives the move- 
ment powerful aid — Early Struggles of its Projectors — First Canal-boat 
leaves Buffalo — Colonel Stone writes the Narrative of the Celebration at 
the request of the Corporation of the City of New York — Description of 
the Celebration, the Land and Naval Processions. &c. — Governor Clinton 
mingles the waters of Lake Erie with those of the Ocean — Dr. Mitchell 
also pours into the Ocean, water from the Ganges, the Nile, Danube, &c. — 
Splendid appearance of the Fleet — Interesting Statistics of the Canal — 
Greek Rebellion — Greeks helped by the Citizens of New York— Efforts of 
Colonel W. L. Stone in their behalf — Anecdote of John Jacob Astor and 
Colonel William L. Stone. 



xv i CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VI. 

1827-1829. 

Visit of tlie Indian Orator Red-Jacket and the Indian Chief Brant to New York 
— Red-Jacket's Portrait Painted by Weir — Conversations between Dr. 
Francis and Red-Jacket — Anecdote of Red-Jacket — Completion of the 
Merchants' Exchange in Wall Street — Masonic Hall, Arcade, and other 
buildings erected — Beginning of Modern New York — New Names of old 
Streets — Beaver Street opened on its present line — Interesting Reminis- 
cences of New York City in 1829, by Gulian C. Verplanck — Habits of 
Jonathan Edwards — Decline of Cedar Street from its ancient consequence 
— Billy the Fiddler— The Hewlett Family — Pine Street in " ye olden time " 
— M. de Singeron, the old Confectioner — Pierre de Landais — Jan Mas — 
Lichenstein — The Doctor's Mob — House built by Chief-Justice Jay — Mons. 
Albert — Huggins. 

CHAPTER VII. 

1834—1835. 

Election Riots — Colonel Morton ordered out — The City Council tender to him 
and his Regiment a Vote of Thanks — Death of General Lafayette — The 
City join in Funeral Obsequies for the Deceased — Stone-cutters' and 
Masons' Riot during the building of the University — The Five Points Riot 
— Antagonism between the Irish and Americans — Dr. McCaffery Killed- - 
Destruction of the Don Jon, or " Old Debtors' Prison " — " Poppy Lownds " 
— Hall of Records established. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

1835. 

The Great Fire of 1835 — Account of it by an Eye-witness — Incidents — Burning 
of the Merchants' Exchange — Mail Matter in the Post-office saved — Statue 
of Hamilton Destroyed — Tontine Coffee-house — Honest John Laing — Ex- 
tent of the Fire — Statement of the Houses and Stores Consumed — Extent 
of the Burnt District — Line of Sentinels placed around the Ruins — Ex- 
periences of Asher Taylor and Judge C. P. Daly — Public Meeting of the 
Citizens called — Names of the Persons appointed on the Committee — 
Resolutions Passed — Thanks tendered to the Citizens of Philadelphia, 
Brooklyn, and Newark — New York by no means Crushed by the Calamity 
— Value of Real and Personal Estate in 183G and 1871 compared — Riot of 
Longshore Workmen — Destruction of the Old Shakespeare Tavern — 
Reminiscences connected with it — Great Resort for the Wits of the Day : 
Hugh Gaine. Jeremy Cheathem, " Ready-money Provost," Percival, Sands, 
Stone, Verplanck, John Inman, McDonald Clark, John Hodgkinson — Park 
Theater. 

CHAPTER IX. 

1836—1837. 

" Great Flour Riot " — Magnitude of the affair — Scarcity of the Cereal Crops 
throughout the Country — Suffering among the Laboring Classes — The 
feeling fanned by the Loco-Foco and Temperance Parties — Indignation 
Meeting called in the Park — The Rioters Addressed by the Ring-leaders — 
Attack on Eli Hart's Store — Flour and Grain pitched into the Street — The 



CONTENTS. xv ii 

Military Called Out — Meecli & Co.'s Store Attacked — The Riot Put Down 
— Description of the Scene at Night, by Colonel William L. Stone — Rioters 
Indicted and sent to Prison— The Price of Flour goes up — The People 
awake to the necessity of procuring an ample Supply of Water for the 
City — The Manhattan Works a Failure — The question of " Water or no 
Water" Decided in the Affirmative by a large Majority Vote — Croton 
Aqueduct Begun — Description of the Route pursued by the Viaduct from 
Croton Dam to New York City — " High Bridge," Description of — Drive on 
the " Bloomingdale Road " to the " High Bridge " — Receiving Reservoir 
in Central Park — Distributing Reservoir on Fifth Avenue— Statistics of the 
Croton Aqueduct. 

CHAPTER X. 
1837—1863. 

New York distances all Competitors — Gas introduced — Telegraphic Communi- 
cation Opened with other Cities — Custom-house (the present Sub-Treasury) 
Built — University Erected — Stone-cutters' Riot — Croton Aqueduct com- 
pleted and the Event celebrated by a magnificent Procession — The Bible in 
the Public Schools — Discussion between Colonel Stone and Archbishop 
Hughes — Death of Colonel Stone — The Catholic Spirit of New York's 
Dutch Ancestors Triumph — The Fire of 1845 — The Burnt District — Burn- 
ing of the Crystal Palace, Barnum's Museum, Academy of Music, the old 
Irving House, and Winter Garden Theater — Fires generally have proved 
beneficial to the City — Description of Fifth Avenue — New York Destitute 
of Public Monuments — Monument to General Worth — Middle Dutch 
Church used for a Post-office — History of the Post-office — Interesting In- 
cidents connected with its early History — Astor-place Riot — Jenny Lind — 
Amended City Charter — Grinnell Expedition — Exhibition of the World's 
Fair — Burning of the Crystal Palace and American Institute — Police Riot — 
Financial Disasters — Bread Riot — Dead-Rabbit Riot — The Dead Removed 
from the Potters' Field to Ward's Island — Quarantine Riot — Visits of the 
Japanese and the Prince of Wales. 

CHAPTER XI. 

1863. 

The year 1863 marked by a Humiliating Event— The Riot of 1863— Details of 
the Riot — Railroad Tracks Torn up and Telegraph Wires Cut — Bull's Head 
and Colored Orphan Asylum Burned by the Mob — The Governor issues a 
Proclamation to the Rioters — The Draft Suspended — Murder of Colonel 
O'Brien— His Body Mutilated— The Mob still Hold the City— The City and 
County of New York declared by the Governor to be in a state of Insur- 
rection — Archbishop Hughes Addresses the Rioters — Colonel Mayer ordered 
to the corner of Twenty -seventh Street and Seventh Avenue — Negroes Sub- 
jected to the most cruel Persecution — Proclamation by Mayor Opdyke, 
declaring that the Riot was at an End — Major-General Dix Relieved of his 
Command at Fortress Monroe — A large Force ordered to New York — The 
Draft takes Place — The Secret History of this affair and the Number Killed 
will probably never be known — In what respect it differs from other Riots. 

CHAPTER XII. 

1864. 

Substitution of a Paid for a Volunteer Fire Department — Interesting History 
of the Fire Department, from its origin in the early Dutch period to the 



Xviii CONTENTS. 

present day — A Comparison between the old Volunteer Fire Department 
and the Metropolitan. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

1868. 

Erection of the National Academy of Design — Its History from its first Incep- 
tion — Trumbull at first its only Artist — Contrast between its past Poverty 
and its present Wealth — Description of the Building itself — Removal of an 
Ancient Landmark — The Old Wakren Mansion — Its Interesting History 
— Lack of Reverence in New-Yorkers for Relics of the Past — Removal of 
the Ashes of the Dead from underneath the Tower of the old North 
Church to Greenwood — Widening of the Bloomingdale Road into the New 
Boulevard — The House in which Louis Philippe Taught School is Torn 
Down. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

1869—1870. 

The year 1869 marked by four Events of a distinctive character — The Removal 
of the Old Hospital — The Blotting-out of St. John's Park by the unsightly 
H. R. R. R. Freight Depot — The Extension of Church Street to Morris 
Street, and the Opening of Pearl Street through the grounds of the Old 
Hospital — The Tearing-down of old Buildings, and the Erection in their 
places of costly and imposing Business and Private Structures — Removal 
of the Courts and Civil Offices from the City Hall into the New Court- 
house — Elegant Business Buildings — Equitable Life, New York Insurance, 
&c. — Increased Value of Property in Broadway and White Street — Interest- 
ing Statistics of Old and Modern New York — Building of the Young Men's 
Christian Association — History of this Organization — Its Prosperity — 
Booth's Theater — The Grand Opera-house — The Arcade R. R. — Pneumatic 
R. R. — The Elevated R. R. — New York receives a New Charter — Its His- 
tory — Mr. Greeley goes to Albany to Oppose it — The " Old " and " New " 
Democracy — The " Old " Triumph — Wherein the New Charter differs from 
the Old. 



CHAPTER XV. 

1871—1872. 

The year 1871 distinguished for both Painful and Pleasant Memories — The 
Orange Riot — The Chicago Fire — How the News was received in New 
York — Noble Action of the Citizens of New York — Nearly Three Millions 
in Money and Supplies raised and forwarded to the stricken City— Public 
and Private Liberality walk hand in hand — Exposure of the Tammany 
Ring Frauds — Appointment of the Committee of Seventy — Thirty-five 
Hundred Vouchers Stolen — Comptroller Connolly requested by Mayor 
Hall to Resign — He peremptorily Refuses — Andrew H. Green appointed 
Deputy Comptroller — His Character — Action of the Banks — Injunction 
granted by Judge Barnard — Mayor Hall presented for Indictment — Gover- 
nor Hoffman waited on by the Committee of Seventy — Advises the Attor- 
ney-General to take Charles O'Conor as his Associate in Prosecuting the 
Ring — O'Conor Accepts, and in turn Appoints, as his assistants, William 
M. Evarts, Wheeler H. Peckham and Judpfe Emott — Arrest of William 
M. Tweed and Ex-Comptroller Connolly — Tweed obtains bail and Connolly 
goes to Ludlow-street Jail — Complete Overthrow of the Ring — Death of 
Fisk. 



CONTENTS. x i x 

CHAPTER XVI. 

1872. 

The History of New York now brought down to a late period — Her Publish- 
ing Houses — Schools of Art, Painting and Sculpture — Trumbull, J arvis, 
Henry Inman, Church, Bierstadt, Ward, Thompson, &c. — Her Benevolent 
Institutions — Character of her Merchant Princes — Deaf and Dumb Asy- 
lum — Dickens' Dinner — Visit of the Russian Duke — Unveiling of the 
Statue of Franklin — A brief Retrospective Glance — Extracts from Dr. 
Osgood's Address before the New York Historical Society — New York 
Churches — The City viewed in reference to its Extent, Wealth, Popula- 
tion and Institutions — Banking Capital Invested — The different Lite and 
Fire Insurance Companies — The Industrial Army of the City passes in 
Review before the Reader — Marvelous Growth of Population within 
Twenty Years — Education of the People. 



APPENDIXES. 

I. Constitution of the Old Tontine Association. 
II. Richmond Hill, the Country Seat of Aaron Burr. 

III. Inscription on the Monument to General Montgomery. 

IV. History of the Old Post-office. 

V. Reminiscences of McDonald Clark, the " Mad Poet." 

VI. Account of William Kidd, the Pirate. 

VII. The Judiciary in the early Dutch Period, by Chief Justice Daly. 

VIII. Letter from Colonel T. Bailey Myers, giving an account of the Origin ol 
the Firemen's Lyceum. 

IX. History of the Hall of Records, formerly the Old Debtors' Prison. 

X. History of the National Academy of Design, by T. Addison Richards. 

XI. Speech of Congressman Roosevelt on the Tammany Frauds. 

XII. Act of Incorporation of the Tammany Society. 

XIII. Reminiscences of Henry Inman, the Artist, from the MS. Diary of the 

late Mrs. Col. Wm. L. Stone. 

XIV. Statement of the Financial Resources of New York City at the pres- 

ent time, contained in a Special Message of Governor Hoffman to the 
Legislature, January, 1872. 



0NTENT6 

ry of the Schools a>'d Pcblic School Society, by Hon. Hooper 
i "•' ret 

the Oldex Time, by Right Reverend Bishop 
Kip. 

W a guest of Taitma.vy. Lu 
sper M. Wetn. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Engravings on Steel. 

1 Entrance of the American Army into New York, Nov. 25th, 

. . . Fronosi 

2 The Inauguration of Washington 

*'. Battle of Harlem ™ face ? "-" 

a Destructicn of the Gaspe, : 72 " "' 

5. Portraits of Gov. G. Clinton, Gen. Gates, Gen. Schuyler, Gen. 

Montsomerv, Gen. J. Clinton 

6. Battle of Lexington 

7. Battle of Bunker's Hill '/'''["„'' "^ 

8 Plan showing the position of the American and Br::, 

, 240 

Ausust, 1770 

n Portrait of General Washington, after Trumbull -+9 

j 200 

10. Capture of Major Andre • • - • " 

„ Reception of President Washington in New York, :;- April, 

r 272 



12. Portrait of Washington in 1795, after Stuart - 

, , John Adams, after Copley - : - - : 

14! Portraits of Gen. Steuben, Gen. Pulaski, Gen. I 

Kosciusko, Gen. De Kalb 

1-. Portrait of Mrs. Washington, after Wo; 

16. 

1: 



Thomas Jefferson, after Bouch 

James Monroe, after Stuart 

t g . jimes Madison, after Stuart 

De Witt Clinton : 

Beniamin Franklin, after Duplessis 45 6 



19. 
20. 



Wood Engravings, Etc. 



Half Moon" 10 






1. Hendrick Hudson's Exploring Vessel, the " 

2. First Settlement on the Hudson 

13 

3. The Swamp 

4 First Saw-mill on the Hudson 

5. Dutch Mansion and Cottage in Ne* am =9 

-6. Seals of New A I 

7. Street View in Ancient Albany 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

8. Old Dutch Church, Albany 45 

9. View of New Amsterdam 58 

10. Portrait of Peter Stuyvesant 65 

1 1 . Bowling Green in 1861 79 

1 2. Hell Gate 84 

13. Turtle Bay and Blackwell's Island 85 

14. Map of New York City, taken in 1 728 130 

1 5. No. 1 Broadway, fifty years ago 153 

16. St. George's Chapel 169 

17. St. George Building, 1870 169 

18. Old King's College 176 

19. Columbia College, 1840 178 

20. Columbia College, 1872 1 80 

21. Sandy Hook from the Light-house 185 

22. Parker's Mail Stage 189 

23. The Old Walton House 220 

24. Kip's Bay House 247 

25. View from Fort Lee 249 

26. Washington Heights 251 

27. Trinity Church 252 

28. Old Sugar House, Liberty street 253 

29. The Tombs 271 

30. Bowling Green in 1783 273 

31. Federal Hall 302 

32. President Washington's House in New York 316 

33. Tontine Coffee-house in 1812 320 

34. Tontine Building in 1872 327 

35. Society Library Building 345 

36. The Grange — Hamilton's Residence 346 

37. Richmond Hill — Burr's Residence 346 

38. Tomb of Hamilton 347 

39. Burr-Hamilton Duelling Ground 347 

40. The Clermont — Fulton's First Steamer 351 

41. Catskill Landing 352 

42. The Thomas Powell Steamer off the Storm King 354 

43. Fulton Ferry in 1740 357 

44. Fort Hamilton 359 

45. Monument to General Montgomery 373 

46. Fort Lafayette 383 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

47. The Navy Yard, Brooklyn 386 

48. Sandy Hook 390 

49. Provost or Debtors' Prison 470 

50. Merchants' Exchange before the Fire of 1835. 476 

51. after the Fire of 1835 (front) 477 

52. (rear) 478 

53. Ready-money Provost's Tomb 491 

54. The Old Bridewell 497 

5 5. Mouth of the Croton 500 

56. Croton Aqueduct 501 

57. Croton Dam 502 

58. High Bridge 502 

59. Bloomingdale Road 503 

60. View in Central Park 503 

61. Manhattan ville 1504 

62. Distributing Reservoir and Rutger's Institute 505 

63. Barnum's Museum and St. Paul's Chapel 511 

64. Fifth Avenue Hotel 513 

65. Union Square 514 

66. Martyr's Monument 515 

67. Monument to General Worth 515 

68. Middle Dutch Church 517 

69. Terrace and Mall, Central Park 530 

70. First Fire Engine in New York in 1730 578 

71. Another view 579 

72. National Academy of Design 588 

73. The Old Brick Church 591 

74. North Dutch Church . 593 

75. Stuy vesant Pear Tree 5 96 

76. Hudson River R. R. Freight Depot 599 

jy. New York Life Assurance Building 603 

78. Equitable Life Assurance Building 604 

79. Young Men's Christian Association Building 608 

80. Booth's Theatre 609 

81. Harper & Brothers' Building 635 

82. Virtue & Yorston's Building 636 

83. Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb 639 

84. Bible House, Cooper Union, and Clinton Hall 649 

85. St. Mark's Church and Historical Society's Building 656 



HISTORY 



OF 



NEW YORK CITY. 



The history of new york naturally divides itself into three 
periods of time: — First — from its settlement by the dutch to 

ITS PERMANENT OCCUPANCY BY THE ENGLISH ; Second — FROM THE ENG- 
LISH CONQUEST TO THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR ; AND, Third 
— FROM ITS EVACUATION BY THE BRITISH DOWN TO THE PRESENT DAY. 



FIEST PEEIOD. 
1598-1674. 

The settlement of New York Island by the Dutch, and its permanent occupancy 

by the English. 

CHAPTER I. 

It is the general belief that the first landing made on 
New York Island, or the " Island of Manhattan," as it was 
then called, was by Hendrick Hudson, in 1G09. 

1 508 

This, however, is not the case ; since the earliest 
records extant state that as early as 1598, a few Holland- 
ers, in the employ of a Greenland Company, were in the 
habit of resorting to New Netherlands («. e., New York), 
not, it is true, with the design of effecting a settlement, but 
merely to secure shelter during the winter months. With 
this view they built two small forts to protect themselves 
2 



10 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



against the Indians. Nevertheless, the fact remains un- 
disputed, that to Hudson belongs the honor of being the 
first who directed public attention to the Island of Man- 
hattan as an advantageous point for a trading port in the 
New World. 

On the 4th of April, 1609, the great navigator 
sailed out of the harbor of Amsterdam, and ' by 
twelve of ye clocke" of the Gth he was two leagues oil' 



1009. 




THE " HALF-MOON. 



the land. He was in the employ of the Dutch East India 
Company, who had commissioned him to seek a passage 
to the East Indies by the north side of Nova Zembla. 
Having, however, found the sea at that part full of ice, he 
turned the prow of his little vessel, the Half-Moon, west- 
ward, and, after a month's cruise, reached the great Bank 
of Newfoundland on the 2d of July Thence he sailed 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 11 

southward to the James River, Virginia, and again alter- 
ing his course— still in pursuit of a new channel to India— 




FIRST SETTLEMENT OX THE HUDSON. 

lie coasted along the shores of New Jersey, and on the 2d 
of September, 1609, cast anchor inside of Sandy Hook. 

The topography of New York Island, as it was first 
seen by Hudson, was as follows : 

"The lower part of it consisted of wood-crowned hills 
and beautiful grassy valleys, including a chain of swamps 
and marshes and a deep pond. Northward, it rose into a 
rocky, high ground. The sole inhabitants were a tribe 
of dusky Indians,— an off-shoot from the great nation of 
the Lenni Lenape, who inhabited the vast territory bounded 
by the Penobscot and Potomac, the Atlantic and Missis- 
sippi—dwelling in the clusters of rude wigwams that 
dotted here and there the surface of the country. The 



12 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

rivers that gird the Island were as yet unstirred by the 
keels of ships, and the bark canoes of the native Man- 
hattans held sole possession of the peaceful waters. 

" The face of the country, more particularly described, 
was gently undulating, presenting every variety of hill 
and dale, of brook and rivulet. The upper part of the 
Island was rocky, and covered by a dense forest ; the lower 
part grassy, and rich in wild fruits and flowers. Grapes 
and strawberries grew in abundance in the fields, and nuts 
of various kinds were plentiful in the forests, which were 
also filled with abundance of game. The brooks and 
ponds were swarming with fish, and the soil was of lux- 
uriant fertility. In the vicinity of the present "' Tombs " 
was a deep, clear, and beautiful pond of fresh water (with 
a picturesque little island in the middle) — so deep, indeed, 
that it could have floated the largest ship in our navy, — 
which was for a long time deemed bottomless by its pos- 
sessors. This was fed by large springs at the bottom, 
which kept its waters fresh and flowing, and had its out- 
let in a little stream that flowed into the East River, 
near the foot of James street. Smaller ponds dotted the 
Island in various places, two of which, lying near each 
other, in the vicinity of the present corner of the Bowery 
and Grand street, collected the waters of the high grounds 
which surrounded them. To the north-west of the Fresh 
Water Pond, or "Kolck," as it afterwards came to be 
called, beginning in the vicinity of the present Hudson 
River Railroad and Freight Depot (formerly St. John's 
Park), and extending to the northward over an area of 
some seventy acres, lay an immense marsh, filled with 
reeds and brambles, and tenanted with frogs and water- 
snakes. A little rivulet connected this marsh with the 
Fresh Water Pond, which was also connected — by the 
stream which formed its outlet — with another strip of 
marshy land, covering the region now occupied by James, 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 13 

Cherry, and the adjacent streets. An unbroken chain of 
waters was thus stretched across the Island from James 
street at the south-east to Canal street at the north-west. 
An inlet occupied the place of Broad street, a marsh cov- 




THE SWAMP. 

erect the vicinity of Ferry street, Rutgers street formed 
the center of another marsh, and a long line of meadows 
and swampy ground stretched to the northward along the 
eastern shore. 

"The highest line of lands lay along Broadway, from 
the Battery to the northernmost part of the Island, form- 
ing its backbone, and sloping gradually to the east and 
west. On the corner of Grand street and Broadway was 
a high hill, commanding a view of the whole Island, and 
falling off gradually to the Fresh Water Pond. To the 
south and west, ihe country, in the intervals of the 
marshes, was of great beauty — rolling, grassy, fertile, 
and well watered. A high range of sand hills traversed 
a part of the Island, from Varick and Charlton to Eighth 
and Greene streets. To the north of these lay a valley, 
through which ran a brook, which formed the outlet of 



14 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

the springy marshes at Washington Square, and emptied 
into the North River at the foot of Hammersly street." * 
Meanwhile, Hudson, having explored the river that 
bears his name as far as the present city of Albany, set 
sail on the 4th of October for Europe, bearing the news 
of the discovery of a new country — the " opening for a new 
commerce;" for although his patrons were disappointed in 
not finding a short road to the land of silks, teas, and 
spices, still, his great discovery was destined to open in 
future time mines of wealth, more valuable than all the 
imagined riches of the Celestial Empire. 

At that period, Holland carried on a lucrative trade 
with the East Indies and Russia. Every year they dis- 
patched nearly one hundred ships to Archangel for furs ; 
but Hudson's glowing accounts of the rich peltry he had 
seen in the newly-discovered regions, soon turned the 
attention of the busy Dutch to a country where these 
articles could be purchased without the taxes of custom- 
houses and other duties. Accordingly, in the year 1610, 
a few merchants dispatched another vessel, under 
the command of the Half-Moon's former mate, 
to traffic in furs with the Indians. This venture 
met with such success, that, two years after, in 1612, 

1 til 2 ii%/ i > 

the Fortune and the Tiger, commanded, respect- 
ively, by Hendrick Christiaensen and Adrien Block, sailed 
on a trading voyage to the "Mauritius River," as the 
Hudson was first named. The following year, also, three 
more vessels, commanded by Captains De Witt, Volckert- 
sen, and Wey, sailed from Amsterdam and Hoven on a 
similar adventure. These were the beginnings of the 
important fur trade, which was, ere long, to be a chief 
source of wealth to Holland and America. It was now 
determined to open a regular communication with the 

* Miss M. L. Booth's History of New York. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 15 

newly-discovered region, and to make the Island of Man- 
hattan the depot of the fur trade in America. It was 
also resolved to establish permanent agents here for the 
purchase and collection of skins, while the vessels were 
on their voyages to and from Holland. Captain Hen- 
drick Christiaensen became the first agent, and built a 
redoubt, with four small houses, on ground which, it is 
said, is now the site of No. 39 Broadway. 

A little navy was commenced about the same period 
by Captain Adrien Block, one of the vessels of which 
was accidentally burned, just on the eve of his departure 
for Holland. Having abundant materials, however, in 
the Island of Manhattan, he finished another; and, in the 
spring of 1614, launched the first vessel ever built ^^ 
in New Amsterdam. She was named the Restless, 
a yacht of sixteen tons— a name prophetic of the ever- 
busy and future great city. The entire winter passed in 
building the vessel, the Indians kindly supplying the 
strangers with food. Such were the earliest movements 
of commerce in New Netherlands two centuries and a 

half ago ! 

A few months before Captain Block's return to Hol- 
land, the States-General of the Netherlands, with a view 
of encouraging emigration, passed an ordinance granting 
the discoverers of new countries the exclusive privilege 
of trading at Manhattan during four years. Accordingly, 
the merchants who had sent out the first expedition had 
a map made of all the country between Canada and Vir- 
ginia, as the whole new region was called, and, claiming 
to be the original discoverers, petitioned the Government 
for the promised monopoly. Their petition was granted ; 
and on the 11th of October, 1614, they obtained a charter 
for the exclusive right of trade on the territory withm 
the 40th and 45th degrees of north latitude. The charter 
also forbade all ether persons to interfere with this mo- 



X6 HISTORY OP NEW YOEK CITY. 

nopoly, in the penalty of confiscating both vessels and 
cargoes, with a fine also of 50,000 Dutch ducats for the 
benefit of the charter's grantees. The new province first 
formally received the name of New Netherland in this 
document ; and Dutch merchants, associating themselves 
under the name of the " United New Netherland Com- 
pany," straightway prepared to conduct their operations 
on a more extensive scale. Trading parties to the in- 
terior hastened to collect furs from the Indians, and de- 
posit them at Forts Nassau (Albany) and Manhattan. 
Jacob Eelkins, a shrewd trader, received the appointment 
of agent at the former place, where the first one, Captain 
Christiaensen, had been murdered by an Indian. This 
was the first murder ever recorded in the new province. 
In the year 1617, a formal treaty of peace and 
alliance was concluded between the Dutch and 
the powerful nation of the Iroquois. The pipe of peace 
was smoked, and the hatchet buried in the earth, on the 
present site of Albany. This treaty, as may readily be 
imagined, greatly increased the prosperity of the Dutch 
traders, who had hitherto occupied Manhattan merely by 
the sufferance of the Indians. Their agents accordingly 
at once extended their trips further into the interior, 
obtaining on each trip valuable furs in exchange for the 
muskets and ammunition so much coveted by the na- 
tives This trade became so profitable, that when the 
charter of the United New Netherland Company expired, 
in 1618, they petitioned for a renewal, but failing to ob- 
tain it, they continued their trade two or three years 
longer, under a special license. 

Up to this period, the Hollanders had considered 
Manhattan as a trading post only, and dwelt in mere 
temporary huts of rude construction. But the British 
now explored the American coast, claiming the whole 
region between Canada and Virginia, from the Atlantic 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 17 

to the Pacific Ocean, and the Dutch, consequently, be- 
gan to realize the importance of securing their American 
possessions in the new province. The English Puritans, 
hearing glowing accounts of New Netherlands, requested 
permission to emigrate thither with their families. But 
the States-General, having other plans in view, refused 
the prayers of the Puritans. They thought it better 
policy to supply the new province with their own coun- 
trymen, and on the 3d of June, 1G21, granted a. 
charter to the West India Company for twenty 
years, which conferred upon that body the exclusive 
jurisdiction over New Netherland. It may well be ques- 
tioned whether the States-General acted wisely in the 
course thus pursued. Had they filled the land, as the 
English were doing, with crowds of hardy, moral emi- 
grants and pioneers — farmers with their cattle and hus- 
bandry — the Dutch settlements would have advanced 
with far greater rapidity. Be this, however, as it may, 
the West India Company no sooner became possessed of 
the charter, than it at once became a power in the new 
country. Having the exclusive right of trade and com- 
merce in the Atlantic, from the Tropic of Cancer to the 
Cape of Good Hope upon the Eastern Continent, and from 
Newfoundland to Magellan Straits on the Western, its 
influence over this immense territory was almost bound- 
less in making contracts with the Indians, building forts, 
administering justice, and appointing public officers. In 
return, the chartered Company pledged itself to colonize 
the new territory. The government of this association 
was vested in five separate chambers or boards of manage- 
ment, in five of the principal Dutch cities, viz: Amsterdam, 
Middleburg, Dordrecht, one in North Holland, and one in 
Friesland. The details of its management were intrusted 
to an executive board of nineteen, commonly called the 
Assembly of Nineteen. The States-General further promis- 
3 



18 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



ed, on their part, to give the Company a million of guild 
ers, and in case of war, to supply ships and men. Mean- 
while, the Puritans, not disheartened, reached Plymouth 
Rock, and thus conveyed their faith and traffic to the 
shores of New England, where they continue to this day. 
The West India Company now began to colonize the 
new province with fresh zeal. The Amsterdam Chamber in 
1G23, fitted out a ship of 250 tons, the New Nether- 
land^ in which thirty families embarked for the 
distant territory whose name she bore. Captain VV r ey 
commanded the expedition, having been appointed the 



1G23. 




FIRST SAW-MILL ON THE HUDSON. 



first director of the province. Most of these colonists 
were Walloons, or French Protestants, from the borders 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 19 

of France and Belgium, who sought in a strange land a 
refuge from religious persecutions. 

With the arrival of the New Netherlands a new era in the 
domestic history of the settlement began. Soon saw-mills 
supplied the necessary timber for comfortable dwellings, 
in the place of the bark-huts built after the Indian fash- 
ion. The new buildings were generally one-story high, 
with two rooms on a floor, and a thatched roof garret. 
From the want of brick and mortar the chimneys were 
constructed of wood. The interior was, as a matter of 
course, very scantily supplied with furniture — the great 
chest from Fatherland, with its prized household goods, 
being the most imposing article. Tables were generally 
the heads of barrels placed on end ; rough shelves con- 
stituted the cupboard ; and chairs were logs of wood 
rough-hewn from the forest. To complete the furniture, 
there was the well known " Sloap Banck" or sleeping- 
bench — the bedstead — where lay the boast, the pride, the 
comfort of a Dutch housekeeper, the feather-bed. Around 
the present Battery and Coenties Slip and Bowling Green 
were the houses, a few of which were surrounded by gar- 
dens. The fruit-trees often excited the thievish propen- 
sities of the natives ; and one devastating war followed 
the shooting of an Indian girl while stealing peaches 
from an orchard on Broadway, near the present Bowling 
Green. Meanwhile, commerce kept pace with the new 
houses ; and the staunch ship, the New Nether land, re- 
turned to Holland with a cargo of furs valued at $12,000. 

Anxious to fulfill its part of the agreement, the West 
India Company, in 1625, also sent out to Manhat- 
tan three ships and a yacht, containing a large 1623, 
number of families armed with farming implements, and 
one hundred and three head of cattle. Fearing the 
cattle might be lost in the surrounding forests, the set- 
tlers landed them on Nutten's (Governor's) Island, but 



IG2G. 



20 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

afterward conveyed them to Manhattan. Two more ves- 
sels shortly after arrived from Holland, and the settle- 
ment soon numbered some 200 persons, and gave promise 
of permanency. 

In the year 1624, Wey returned to Holland, and was 
succeeded in the Directorship by William Verhulst. The 
latter, however, did -not long enjoy the emoluments of 
office, for at the end of a year he also was recalled, and 
Peter Minuit appointed, in his place ; Director-General of 
New Netherland, with full power to organize a provisional 
government. He arrived May 4, 1G26, in the ship 
Sea-Meiv, Adrian Joris, captain. The first seal was 
now granted to the province, having for a crest, a beaver, 
than which, for a coat of arms, nothing could have been 
more appropriate. It was fitting that the earliest Hol- 
landers of the " Empire City " should thus honor the 
animal that was fast enriching them in their newly- 
adopted home. 

To the credit of Director Minuit, be it said, the very 
first act of his administration was to purchase in an open 
and honorable manner the Island of Manhattan from the 
Indians for sixty guilders, or twenty-four dollars. The 
Island itself was estimated to contain 22,000 acres. The 
price paid, it is true, was a mere trifle, but the purchase 
itself was lawful and satisfactory to the aboriginal owners 
— a fact which cannot be truly said in regard to other 
regions taken from the Indians. 

To assist him in carrying out his instructions, the 
Director was furnished with an Executive Council. The 
latter body was, in turn, assisted by the Koopman, who 
acted as Secretary to the province and book-keeper of the 
public warehouse. Last of all, came the Schout- Fiscal, a 
civil factotum, half sheriff and attornej-general, executive 
officer of the Council, and general custom-house official. 
Thus earlv had the Dutch an eve to the "main chance," 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 21 

the export of furs that year (1626) amounting to $19,000, 
and giving promise of a constant increase. 

Some thirty rudely-constructed log-houses at this 
time extended along the shores of the East River, which, 
with a block-house, a horse-mill, and the " Company's " 
thatched stone building, constituted the City of New 
York two hundred and forty-two years ago. A clergy- 
man or school-master was as yet unknown in the infant 
colony. Every settler had his own cabin and cows, tilled 
his land, or traded with the Indians— all were busy, like 
their own emblem, the beaver. 

In the year 1629, the "Charter of Privileges ^^ 
and Exemptions" was granted in Holland, and 
patroons were allowed to settle in the new colony. This 
important document transplanted the old feudal tenure 
and burdens of Continental Europe to the free soil of 
America. The proposed Patrooneries were only transcripts 
of the Seigneuries and Lordships so common at that period, 
and which the French were, at the same time, establish- 
ing in Canada. In that province, even at the present 
day, the feudal appendages of jurisdiction, pre-emption 
rights, monopolies of mines, minerals, and waters, with 
hunting, fishing, and fowling, form a part of the civil law. 
Pursuing, however, a more liberal policy, the grantees cf 
the charter to the New Netherland patroons secured the 
Indian's right to his native soil, at the same time that 
they enjoined schools and churches. 

Meanwhile, the settlement of New Netherland, con- 
tinuing to prosper, soon became the principal depot for 
the fur and coasting trade of the patroons. The latter 
were obliged to land all their cargoes at Fort Amsterdam ; 
and the years 1629-'30, the imports from old ^ 
Amsterdam amounted to 113,000 guilders, and 
the exports from Manhattan exceeded 130,000. The 
Company reserved the exclusive right to the fur trade, 



22 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

and imposed a duty of five per cent, on all the trade of 
the patroons. 

The inhabitants, in order not to be idle, turned their 
attention, with fresh zeal, to ship-building, and with so 
much success, that as early as 1631, New Amster- 
dam had become the metropolis of the New World. 
The New Netherlands a ship of 800 tons, was built at 
Manhattan, and dispatched to Holland — an important 
event of the times, since the vessel was one of the largest 
merchantmen of the world. It was a very costly experi- 
ment, however, and was not soon repeated. Emigrants 
from all nations now began to flock into the new colony. 
They were principally induced to come by the liberal offers 
of the Dutch Company, who transported them in its own 
vessels at the cheap rate of twelve and a half cents per 
diem for passage and stores ; giving them, also, as a still 
further inducement, as much land as they could cultivate. 
Nor were these the only reasons which caused so many to 
leave their Fatherland. With a wise and liberal policy, 
totally different from that of its eastern neighbors, the 
Dutch province allowed the fullest religious toleration. 
The Walloons, Calvinists, Huguenots, Quakers, Catholics, 
and Jews, found a safe home in New Netherland, and laid 
the broad and solid foundation of that tolerant character 
ever since retained by the City of New York In her 
streets and broad avenues may be seen, on any Sabbath, 
Jews, Gentiles, and Christians, worshipping God in their 
sacred temples, "according to the dictates of their own 
consciences." 

In the meantime the Directors of the West India 
Company calculated, with the strong aid of the patroons, 
upon colonizing the new country, and, at the same time, 
securing the important free trade in their own hands. 
But they were met, almost at the outset, with serious 
opposition from that class who, not content with a nega- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 23 

tive policy, took active measures seriously to injure this 
traffic. From the first, the object of the patroons had 
seemed to be a participation in the Indian trade, rather 
than the colonization of the country ; and they had even 
claimed the privilege of trafficking with the Indians from 
Florida to Newfoundland, according to their charter of 
1629. This extensive trade the West India Company 
justly considered an interference with their vested rights 
and interests, and no time was lost in presenting their 
complaints to the States-General. That body thereupon 
adopted new articles, the effect of which was essentially 
to limit the privileges already granted to the patroons. 
This misunderstanding had the effect of interrupting, for 
a time, the efforts making to colonize and advance the 
new country. At length, in 1632, both parties be- 
came in a complete state of antagonism as to their 
privileged charters, and, for a little time, a civil war 
seemed inevitable. In the same year (1632), Peter Minuit, 
the Director, it will be remembered, of New Netherland, 
was suspected of favoring the patroons, and was recalled 
from his Directorship. He returned to Holland in the 
ship Eendragt (which had brought over his dismissal), 
which carried also a return cargo of 5,000 beaver-skins — 
an evidence of the colony's commercial prosperity. The 
vessel, driven by stress of weather, put into the harbor of 
Plymouth, where she was retained on the ground of hav- 
ing illegally interfered with English monopolies. This 
arrest of the Dutch trader led to a correspondence between 
the rival powers, in which the respective claims of each 
were distinctly set forth. The Hollanders claimed the 
province on the following grounds : 1st. Its discovery by 
them in the year 1609 ; 2d. The return of their people in 
1610; 3d. The grant of a trading charter in 1614; 4th. 
The maintenance of a fort, until 1621, when the West 
India Company was organized ; and, 5th Their purchase 



24 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

of the land from the Indians. The English, on the con- 
trary, defended their right of possession on the ground of 
the prior discovery by Cabot, and the patent of James I. 
to the Plymouth Company. The Indians, they argued, as 
wanderers, were not the bona fide owners of the land, and 
hence, had no right to dispose of it ; consequently, their 
titles must be invalid. But England, being at this period 
just on the eve of a civil war, was in no condition to en- 
force her claims ; and she, therefore, having released the 
Eendragt, contented herself with the mere assumption of 
authority — reserving the accomplishment of her designs 
until a more convenient season. 

At length, in the month of April, 1633, the 
ship Soutberg reached Manhattan with Wouter 
Van Twiller, the new Director-General (or Governor) and 
a military force of one hundred and four soldiers, together 
with a Spanish caraval, captured on the way. Among the 
passengers, also, came Dominie Everardus Bogardus and 
Adam Roelandsen, the first regular clergyman and school- 
master of New Amsterdam. A church now became indis- 
pensable ; and the room over the horse-mill, where prayers 
had been regularly read for seven years, was abandoned for 
a rude, wooden church, on Pearl, between Whitehall and 
Broad streets, on the shore of the East River. This was 
the first Reformed Dutch Church in the city ; and near 
by were constructed the parsonage and the Dominie's sta- 
bles. The grave-yard was laid out on Broadway, in the 
vicinity of Morris street. 

Van Twiller occupied " Farm No. 1 " of the Company, 
which extended from Wall to Hudson street. " Farm 
No. 3," at Greenwich, he appropriated as his tobacco plan- 
tation. The new Governor and the Dominie did not har- 
monize. Bogardus having interfered in public concerns, 
which Van Twiller resented, the former, from his pulpit, 
pronounced the Governor a " Child of Satan." This, 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 25 

doubtless, was very true, but the "Child of Satan" became 
so incensed, that he never entered the church-door again. 
In 1G38, "for slandering; the Rev. E. Bocrardus," 

1638 

an old record states, " a woman was obliged to 
appear at the sound of a bell, in the fort, before the Gov- 
ernor and Council, and say that she knew he was honest 
and pious, and that she had lied falsely." 

Van Twiller had been promoted from a clerkship in 
the Company's warehouse, and seems to have been a very 
incompetent Governor. He probably obtained the place, 
not from fitness, but from the same means which act in 
similar cases at the present day, viz., political influence, 
arising from the fact that he had married the daughter 
of Killian Van Rensselaer, the wealthy patroon. 

The Company had authorized him to fortify the depots 
of the fur trade. Accordingly, the fort on the Battery, 
commenced in the year 1G26, was rebuilt, and a guard- 
house and barracks prepared for the soldiers. Several 
brick and stone dwellings were erected within the fort, and 
three wind-mills, used to grind the grain necessary for the 
garrison, on the southwest bastion of the fort. African 
slaves were the laborers principally engaged upon these 
improvements. At a subsequent period, when these slaves 
had grown old, they petitioned the authorities for their 
freedom, and recounted their services at the time men- 
tioned in support of their application, in proof of which 
they presented a certificate given them by their overseer : 
" That, during the administration of Van Twiller, he (Ja- 
cob Stoffelsen), as overseer of the Company's negroes, was 
continually employed with said negroes in the construction 
of Fort Amsterdam, which was finished in 1635 ; 
and that the negroes assisted in chopping trees for 
the big house, making and splitting palisades, and other 
work." The "big house" here referred to was the Gov- 
ernor's residence. It was built of brick, and was, no 

4 



26 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

doubt, a substantial edifice, as it is found to have served 
for the residence of successive chiefs of the colony during 
all the Dutch era, and for a few years subsequent. 

In respect to the walls of the fort, they were in no 
wise improved by the incompetent Van T wilier, except 
the northwest bastion, which was faced with stone. The 
other parts of the walls were simply banks of earth with- 
out ditches ; nor were they even surrounded by a fence to 
keep off the goats and other animals running at large in 
the town. When Governor Kieft arrived in 1G38, 
as Van Twiller's successor, he found the fort in a 
decayed state, " opening on every side, so that nothing 
could obstruct going in or coming out, except at the stone 
point." Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the fort ex- 
ercised a very salutary influence in keeping the Indians 
at a respectful distance.* 

In 1633, the commercial importance of New 
Amsterdam was increased by the grant of the 
" Staple Kight," a sort of feudal privilege similar to the 
institutions of the Fatherland. By it, all vessels trading 
along the coast, or sailing on the rivers, were obliged 
either to discharge their cargoes at the port, or pay cer- 
tain duties. This soon became a valuable right, as it gave 
to New Amsterdam the commercial monopoly of the 
whole Dutch province. 

A short time before the arrival of Governor Van Twil- 
ler, De Vries, whose little colony at Suaaendael, Delaware, 

* In 1641, an Indian war broke out, and raged for many months, resulting 
in tlie complete devastation of most of the farms and exposed settlements, even 
those lying within a stone's-throw of Fort Amsterdam. The frightened settlers 
fled to the fort ; but the accommodation in the fort not affording them an ade- 
quate shelter, they established their cottages as close as possible to the protect- 
ing ramparts. Thus it was that two or three new streets were formed around 
the southern and eastern walls of the fort. After the danger had passed, these 
buildings were allowed to remain, and grants of land were made to the pos- 
sessors. Thus was formed that portion of the present Pearl street west of 
Whitehall street, and also a portion of the latter street. — Valentine's Manual. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 27 

had been cut off by the Indians, returned to America on 
a visit, in the mammoth ship New Netherland. A yacht, 
about this time, also arrived — the English ship, William, 
with Jacob Eelkins, who had been dismissed from his office 
of supercargo by the Company, in 1632. Enraged by this 
dismissal, he had entered the service of the English, and 
had now returned to promote their interests in the fur 
trade on the Mauritius (Hudson) River. 

This was a bold act, and contrary to the policy of the 
West India Company, Accordingly, Van Twiller, who, 
though an inefficient Governor, was a thorough merchant, 
and understood the important monopoly of the fur trade, 
refused permission for the vessel to proceed further on its 
way. His demand upon Eelkins for his commission was 
refused by the latter, on the ground that he occupied Brit- 
ish territory, and would sail up the river at the cost, if 
need be, of his life. Thereupon, the Director, ordering the 
national flag to be hoisted, and three guns fired in honor 
of the Prince of Orange, forbade him to proceed further. 
But, far from being daunted by this prohibition, Eelkins 
answered by running up, in his turn, the British colors, 
firing a salute for King Charles, and coolly steering up the 
river in defiance of Fort Amsterdam. The amazement of 
Van Twiller at the audacity of the ex-Dutch Agent may 
be easily imagined. Astonished, as he was, at this daring 
act, the Director, nevertheless, proceeded very philosophi- 
cally : First, he summoned all the people in front of the 
fort, now the Bowling Green ; next, he ordered a cask of 
wine, and another of beer ; then, filling his own glass, he 
called on all good citizens who loved the Prince of Orange 
to follow his patriotic example, and drink confusion to the 
English Government. The people, of course, were not 
slow in obeying this reasonable request; indeed, what 
more could they do, for the English ship was now far be- 
yond all reach, safely pursuing her way up the Hudson. 



28 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Still, while they drank his wine, they were deeply morti- 
fied at the Governor's cowardiee. De Vries openly accused 
him with it, and plainly told him, if it had been his case, 
he should have sent some "eight-pound beans" after the 
impudent Englishman, and helped him down the river 
again; but it being now too late to do this, he should send 
the Soutberg after him, and drive him down the river. 
The effect of this advice was not lost upon the Governor; 
for, a few days after, Van Twiller screwed up his cour- 
age sufficiently to dispatch an armed force to Fort Orange 
(Albany), where Eelkins had pitched his tent, and where 
he was found busily engaged in trading with the Indians. 
The Dutch soldiers quickly destroyed his canvas store, 
and, reshipping the goods, brought the vessel back to Fort 
Amsterdam. Eelkins was then required to give up his 
peltry ; after which he was sent to sea, with the warning 
never again to interfere with the Dutch Government trade. 
Meanwhile the settlement at Fort Amsterdam — the 
New York embryo — continued to increase and prosper, 
men of enterprise and wealth often arriving. Most of 
these came from the Dutch Netherlands, and thus trans- 
ferred the domestic economy and habits of Holland and 
the Rhine to the banks of the Hudson. Ships were loaded 
with bricks, burnt in Holland ; and at first, every dwell- 
ing was modeled after those they had left, and with 
storerooms for trade, like those of Amsterdam and other 
trading towns in Fatherland* Thus, at New Amsterdam 
and Fort Orange rows of houses could be seen built 
of imported brick, with thatched roofs, wooden chimneys, 
and their gable ends always toward the street. Inside 
were all the neatness, frugality, order, and industry which 
the inmates brought from their native land. A few of 
these original, venerable Dutch homes were to be seen, till 
within a year or two, in this city ; but we do not know of 
a single one now. Several yet remain in Albany ; and it 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



29 



is almost worth a trip there to see these striking relics of 
"ye olden time." Until the year 1642, city lots and 
streets were unknown, adventurers and settlers selecting 
land wherever most convenient for their purpose. Hence 
the crooked courses of some of our down-town streets * 




DUTCH MANSION AND COTTAGE IN NEW AMSTERDAM. 

Cornelis Dircksen owned a farm by the present Peck 
Slip, and ferried passengers across the East River for the 
small price of three stivers, in wampum. At that time, 
Pearl street formed the bank of the river— Water, Front, 
and South streets having all been reclaimed for the pur- 
pose of increasing trade and commerce. The old wooden, 
shingled house, one of the last venerable relics of the olden 



* Pearl street, for instance. 



30 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

time, on the corner of Peck Slip, was so near the river 
that a stone could easily be thrown into it. Pearl, it is 
thought, was the first street occupied, the first houses 
being built there, in 1633. Bridge street came next; and 
a deed is still in existence for a lot on it, thirty-four by 
one hundred and ten feet, for the sum of twenty-four 
guilders, or nine dollars and sixty cents. This is the 
earliest conveyance of city property on record. Whitehall, 
Stone, Broad, Beaver, and Marketfield streets were opened 
soon after. In the year 1642, the first grant of a 
city lot, east of the fort at the Battery, was made 
to Hendricksen Kip. During the next year, several lots 
were granted on the lower end of " Heere Straat," as 
Broadway was then named. Martin Krigier was the first 
grantee of a lot in this section, opposite the Bowling 
Green, which contained eighty-six rods. There he built 
the well-known Krigier's Tavern," which soon became a 
fashionable resort.* 

Nor during all this time did the fur trade fail to keep 
pace with the growing local prosperity of the place. Dur- 
ing the year 1635, the Directors in Holland received 
returns from the province to the amount of nearly 185,000 
guilders But the monopoly of the traffic in furs was not 
the only source of gain. A profitable commerce was also 
carried on with New England. Dutch vessels brought 
tobacco, salt, horses, oxen, and sheep from Holland to 
Boston. An old account says they came from the Texel 
in five weeks and three days, " and lost not one beast or 
sheep." Potatoes from Bermuda were worth two pence 
the pound ; a good cow, twenty-five or thirty pounds ; and 



* Upon the deinolishment of this building its site was occupied by the 
" King's Arms' Tavern," which, in after years, was the head-quarters of the 
British General Gage. Subsequently, it became the " Atlantic Garden," No. 9 
Broadway, where it long remained one of the striking mementoes of the olden 
time. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 31 

a pair of oxen readily brought forty pounds. In Virginia, 
corn rose to twenty shillings the bushel during the year 
1G3T; a shepel, or three pecks of rye, brought two guil- 
ders, or eighty cents ; and a laborer readily earned, during 
harvest, two guilders per diem. These were high prices for 
those times, and were probably caused, in a measure, by 
the sanguinary war which the New England Puritans* 
were carrying on with their Indian neighbors. The Pe- 
quods. failing to deliver the murderers of Stone, according 
to treaty, had tendered an atonement of wampum, but Mas- 
sachusetts demanded " blood for blood ; " and she obtained 
it in the wars that followed. Winthrop says, " Scarcely a 
sannup, a woman, a squaw, or a child of the Pequod name 
survived." It is the fashion to indulge in much panegyric 
about these ancestral doings, but here can be calmly 
traced the first attempt of the white race to extirpate the 
red men from their ancestral birthright to the northern 
regions of America. 

Notwithstanding, however, the large prices obtained 
for its wares, the year 1638 found the condition of 
New Netherland very unpromising. Although its 
affairs had now been administered for fifteen years by that 
powerful body, the West India Company, still, the country 
was scarcely removed from its primitive wilderness state, 
and, excepting the Indians, it was inhabited by only a few 
traders and clerks of a distant corporation. Its rich vir- 
gin soil remained almost entirely uncultivated, and the 
farms did not amount to more than half a dozen. Doubt- 
less, the Directors of the West India Company governed 
New Netherland chiefly to promote their own special in- 
terests—to advance which, large sums had been expended ; 



* Puritans, not Pilgrims. These terms, though generally used synony- 
mously, refer to two entirely different classes of men. The Pilgrims never 
practiced religious persecution; the Puritans did. The Pilgrims came over to 
the New World some fifteen years earlier than the Puritans. 



32 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

and, as a natural consequence, no efforts had as yet been 
made to introduce, on a large scale, a sound and industri- 
ous emigration. The patroon system, also, to which refer- 
ence has already been made, greatly retarded the settle- 
ment of the colony. A monopoly, its patroons neglected 
their most important duties as planters, and used their 
energies and means to compete with the Company in the 
Indian trade; consequently, misunderstandings and dis- 
putes followed, which became almost fatal to the prosperity 
of the new settlement. 

At this critical moment, William Kieft, the third Di- 
rector-General and Governor, arrived March, 1G3S. as the 
successor of the weak Van Twiller. His first step was to 
organize a Council, retaining, however, its entire control. 
Dr. Johannes La Montague, a learned Huguenot, was 
appointed by him a member of this new board; Cornells 
Van Tienhoven, from Utrecht, one of the oldest settlers, 
was made Colonial Secretary, with a salary of two hun- 
dred and fifty dollars per annum; while Ulrich Leopold 
continued as Schout-Fiscal, or Sheriff and Attorney-Gen- 
eral. Adrian Dircksen was made Assistant-Commissary, 
"because he spoke correctly the language of the Mohawks, 
and was well versed in the art of trading with them." 
The Rev. Mr. Bogardus continued the Dominie, and 
Adam Roelandsen the School-master.* 

The new Governor found the town in an extremely 
dilapidated condition. The fort had fallen completely 
into decay ; all the guns were oil' their carriages ; and 
the public buildings, as well as the church, were all out 
of repair; only one of the three wind-mills was in opera- 



* La Montagne, as Member of the Council, received fourteen dollars a 
mouth; the book-keeper, fourteen dollars and forty cents, with eighty dollars 
for his yearly board ; the mason, eight dollars ; a joiner, six dollars and forty 
cento; a carpenter, seven dollars and fifty cents, and forty dollars a year for 
boa id 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 33 

tion ; and the Company's fine farms had no tenants— not 
even a goat remaining upon them. But the new Governor 
came charged with more onerous duties than simply the 
repair of houses ; he was the bearer of a decree that no 
person in the Dutch Company's employ should trade in 
peltry, or import any furs, under penalty of losing his 
wages' and a confiscation of his goods. Abuses also 
existed in all the departments of the public service, 
which Kieft vainly attempted to remedy by proclama- 
tions. Death was threatened against all who should sell 
guns or powder to the Indians; after nightfall, all sailors 
were to remain on board their vessels ; no persons could 
retail any liquors, " except those who sold wine at a decent 
price, and in moderate quantities," under penalty of twen- 
ty-five guilders (ten dollars), and the loss of their stock. 
Tobacco, then as now, was greatly in demand, the rich 
virgin soil about New Amsterdam suiting the plant well; 
consequently, plantations for its cultivation increased so 
fast, that the plant was now also subjected to excise, and 
regulations were published by the Directory to regulate 
its" mode of culture, and check certain abuses which were 
injuring " the high name" it had "gained in foreign coun- 
tries."* But the new Governor did not confine himself to 
correcting official abuses solely; he issued proclamations 
to improve the moral condition of the settlement ; and all 
persons were seriously enjoined to abstain from "fighting, 
calumny, and all other immoralities," as the guilty would 
be punished, and made a terror to evil-doers. Rightly 
judging, also, that public worship would be a peaceful 
auxiliary to his labors, and the old wooden church built 
by Van Twiller having fallen to pieces, he determined to 
erect a new one inside the fort. Jochem Pietersen Kuyter, 
Jan Jansen Damen, with Kieft and Captain De Vries, as 

* Albany Records, II., 3-12. 



34 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

" Kirke Meesters," superintended the new work, and John 
and Richard Ogden were the masons. The building was 
of stone, seventy-two by fifty-two feet, and sixteen high, 
and cost 2,500 guilders. Its legend, translated from the 
Dutch, read : "Anno Domini 1642, William Kieft, Direc- 
tor-General, hath the Commonalty caused to build this 
temple." New Amsterdam had a town-bell; this was 
now removed to the belfry of the new church, whence it 
regulated the city moven.ents, the time for laborers and 
the courts. It also pealed the weddings, tolled the funer- 
als, and called the people to the Lord's House.* 

Hardly, however, had Kieft got his plans for the 
moral reformation of his people fairly under way, when, 
as before hinted, the patroons began to give fresh trouble : 
that class now (1638) demanded "new privileges" — "that 
they might monopolize more territory, be invested with 
the largest feudal powers, and enjoy free trade throughout 
New Netherland." Nor was this all. In their arrogance, 
they also demanded that all "private persons" and "poor 
emigrants" should be forbidden to purchase lands from 
the Indians, and should settle within the colonies under 
the jurisdiction of the manorial lords — i e., themselves. 

These grasping demands of the patroons were reserved 
for future consideration by the States-General ; and it was 

* At this period the settlers of New Amsterdam obtained their supplies 
from the Company's store at fifty per cent, advance on prime cost, a list of 
prices being placed in a conspicuous position in some place of public resort. 
Here are some of the rates : Indian corn, sixty cents per schepel of three pecks ; 
barley, two dollars ; peas, three dollars and twenty-five cents; flour, one dol- 
lar; pork, five stivers; fresh meat, five ; butter, eight ; tobacco, seven ; dried 
fish, twelve (two York shillings) per pound ; hard-bread, fifteen ; rye, five ; 
wheaten, seven ; cabbage, twelve dollars per hundred ; staves, thirty-two dol- 
lars per thousand ; a hog, eight dollars ; ordinary wine, thirty-one dollars per 
hogshead ; Spanish wine, four stivers ; French wine, ten per quart ; sugar, sev- 
enteen and twenty-four per pound; flannel, one dollar and twenty cents per 
ell ; cloth, two dollars ; white linen, eighteen to twenty stivers ; red flannels, 
one dollar and twenty cents ; children's shoes, thirty-six stivers, or six York 
shillings a pair of brass kettles, forty cents each. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 35 

determined to try free competition in the internal trade 
of New Netherland. A notification was accordingly pub- 
lished by the Amsterdam Chamber, that all the inhabit- 
ants of the United Provinces, and of friendly countries, 
might convey to New Netherland, " in the Company's 
ships," any cattle and merchandise, and might "receive 
whatever returns they or their agents may be able to 
obtain in those quarters therefor." A duty of ten per 
cent, was paid to the Company on all goods exported from 
New Netherland with the freight. Every emigrant, upon 
his arrival at New Amsterdam, was to receive " as much 
land as he and his family could properly cultivate." This 
liberal system gave a great impulse to the prosperity of 
New Netherland, by encouraging the emigration of sub- 
stantial colonists, not only from Holland, but from Vir- 
ginia and New England. Conscience had ever been free in 
New Netherland, and now trade and commerce were like- 
wise made free to all. Political franchise in Massachusetts 
was limited to church members, and now " many men 
began to inquire after the southern ports," not from the 
climate there, or the necessary wants of life, but, in the 
language of the old chronicler, " to escape their insupport- 
able government." The only obligation required of emi- 
grants was an oath of fidelity and allegiance to the colony, 
the same as imposed upon the Dutch settlers. Both par- 
ties enjoyed equal privileges. 

This free internal trade, however, produced some irreg- 
ularities ; and a new proclamation soon became necessary 
to warn all persons against selling guns or ammunition to 
the Indians. Still another edict prohibited persons from 
sailing to Fort Orange (Albany), and the South River 
(Fort Hope), and returning without a passport. Another 
very unpopular edict, also, was shortly after issued by 
Kieft. His extreme anxiety to serve his patrons caused 
him to " demand some tribute " of maize, furs, or sewant t 



36 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

from the neighboring Indians, "whom," he said, "we have 
thus far defended against their enemies ; " and in case of 
their refusal, proper measures were to be taken to "remove 
their reluctance." 

In regard, however, to the Governor's proclamation 
against selling guns, &c, to the Indians, nothing can be 
said against it. The case demanded it. Freedom of 
trade with the savages had, indeed, run into abuses and 
injurious excesses. 

The colonists neglected agriculture for the quicker 
gains of traffic; and at times, by settling "far in the inte- 
rior of the country," and, by " great familiarity and treat- 
ing," brought themselves into contempt with the Indians. 
Evil consequences, as a matter of course, followed this 
unwise conduct — the most unfortunate of which was the 
supplying of the savages with new weapons of war. They 
considered the gun, at first, " the Devil" and would not even 
touch it; but, once discovering its fatal use, eagerly sought 
the fire-arms of the whites. They would willingly barter 
twenty beaver-skins for a single musket, and pay ten or 
twelve guilders for a pound of powder. As no merchan- 
dise became so valuable to the red men, the West India 
Company foresaw the evil of arming the savages, and 
declared the trade in fire-arms contraband. It even for- 
bade the supply to the New Netherland Indians, under 
penalty of death. But the prospect of large profits easily 
nullified this law of prudence and wisdom. 

In 1640, Director Kieft determined upon an- 
other unwise measure, viz., the exaction of a con- 
tribution, or rather a tax, of corn, furs, and wampum from 
the Indians about Fort Amsterdam. This and other im- 
proper acts entirely estranged them from the settlers, and 
laid the foundation of a bloody war, which, the next year 
(1641), desolated New Netherland. Meanwhile, Kieft, 
continuing stubborn, sent sloops to Tappan to levy con- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 37 

tributions ; but the natives indignantly refused to pay the 
novel tribute. In their own plain language, they won- 
dered bow the Sachem at the fort dared to exact such 
things from them He must be, they said, a very shabby 
fellow ; he had come to live in their land, where they had 
not invited him, and now came to deprive them of their 
corn, for no equivalent. They, therefore, refused to pay, 
adding this unanswerable argument: "If we have ceded 
to you the country you are living in, we yet remain mas- 
ters of what we have retained for ourselves ! " 

Notwithstanding, however, the many injudicious acts 
of Governor Kieft, it cannot be denied that, during his 
administration, the trade of New Amsterdam began to be 
better regulated. The streets of the town, also, were bet- 
ter laid out in the lower section of the city.* In 
1641, Kieft instituted two annual fairs, for the 
purpose of encouraging agriculture — one of which was 
held in October, for cattle ; and the other the next month, 
for hogs, upon the Bowling Green. The holding of these 
fairs opened the way for another important addition to 
the comfort of the town. No tavern, as yet, had been 
started in the Dutch settlement ; and the numerous vis- 
itors from the interior and the New England colonies 
were forced to avail themselves of the Governor's hos- 
pitalities. The fairs increasing in number, Kieft found 
them a heavy tax upon his politeness, as well as his 
larder; and, in 1642, he erected a large stone 

' ' ° 1642. 

tavern, at the Company's expense. It was situ- 
ated on a commanding spot, near the present Coenties 
Slip, and was afterward altered into the " Staclt Huys" or 
City Hall. 

The Governor now succeeded better, not only in en- 
forcing law and restraining contraband trade, but in check- 



* The price of lots, 30x125 feet, averaged at this period about $14. 



:»„M II 1 1; i <> i: v o i ,\ k \v v <» k k 0IT1 

in" the importation of bad wampum, which had become a 
serious loss to the traders, by reducing its value from four 
to i beads i"i •• stivei 

l\(ui/iiim/ <»i sewctnL from ii close connection with the 
early trade of New Notherland, requires special notice 
This kind of money, 01 circulating medium, embraced two 
I i n< i the wa ni fa in (.1 white, and the Suckanhooksucki, oi 
blacl 'ii'niii. The form©] \\;i made from t\e periwinkle, 

find ilic lattei i > the purple part oi the hard clam 

Thei e, pounded into beads and polished, with drilled holes, 
were trung upon 'in- inewi «»i animals, and woven ini<> 
diffei (ni sized belts Black beads were twice as valuable 
as il"' white, and ili<" latter became, therefore, naturalh , 
the standard of value A. string, a fathom long, 41 was worth 
i. >ui guilders, The be I article was manufactured by the 
Lou" i land Indians j and. until a oomparativen late 
period the Mont auks on that inland, or rather, their 
de pendant , manufactured this shell mone^ for the inte 
mil tribes A clerk < > I . 1 « > 1 1 1 1 Jacob A stor manj years ago 
informed Hi«' Hon << I*. Disoswa^ thai li«' had visited 
Communipaw, and purchased for his employer, from the 
Dutch, iIh article l>\ the bushel, i<> be used l>\ ili<' great 
iiii dealer in his purchases nmong the distant savages. Ii 
mi 'iii, perhaps, be :> curious question, how man^ bushels 
<>i ■aiiipum are invested, lor «• \ :» m j >l< in tin' hotel winch 
bear the name <>i the great fur millionaire 1 The New 
England Indians, imitating their whiter fac «l neighbors, 
made •'> <Ii<<i/><>- wampum, rough, «>i inferior quality , and 
l>:ull\ strung n..i w.i ii long before the New England- 
(<rs introduced large quantities <>i their imperfect bends 
into New Motherland for the Dutchman's goods; next, 



" A " l:illi..in nr- . •■! 1111:1 ( • .1 Ml " mil. Ii &| n in mi . .uil.l irncli Willi In:- Mini : 

.Mil- 1 ni. ii.-.i rii. gft\ i [uently, were shrewd enough (In tr&dlnji 

uiiii iii.' \>iiii< •■.* I., choose iii. ii i:iif. i m 1 1. 1 i:iii.";i hi. -ii foi iii.ii'iin in;; stlcki 
oi gt&ndard 



BISTORT OF N.EW FORK CITY. .'J9 

beads of porcelain were manufactured in Europe, and cir- 
culated among the colonists, until the evil finally became 
so great, that the Council, in Kill, published an ordi- 
nance, declaring that a large quantity of bad sewant, im- 
ported from other placers, was in circulation, while the 
good and really fine sewant, usually called " Manhattan 
Sewant" was kept out of sight, or exported — a state of 
things which must eventually ruin the country. To cure 
this public evil, the ordinance provided that nil coarse 
sewant^ well stringed, should pass for one stiver. This is 
the first ordinance, on record, to regulate such currency. 
In the year 1017, they were again reduced from six to 
eight for a, stiver, and thus became the commercial 
"greenbacks" of the early Dutch. 

About this period, the increasing intercourse and busi- 
ness with the English settlements made it, necessary that 
more attention should he paid to the English Language. 
Governor Kiel! had. it is tine, som<; knowledge of the 
English tongue; hut his subordinates were generally 
ignorant of it — a circumstance which often caused great 
embarrassment George Baxter was accordingly appointed 
his English Secretary, with a. salary of two hundred dol- 
lars per annum; and thus, for the first time, the English 
language was officially recognized in New Amsterdam. 

As the colony grew Stronger, the Dutch scattered 
themselves further into the interior; established them- 
selves more firmly at Manhattan ; and thus gave to the 
City of New York its first, incorporation two hundred and 
nineteen years ago. The ferric- received early attention 
from the corporation. No one w;i- permitted to he a 

ferryman, without a, License from the magistrates. The 
ferryman also was required to provide proper boats and 
servants, with houses, on both sides of the river, to accom- 
modate passengers. All officials passed ih-c. of toll ; or, 
to speak more in accordance with the Language of the 



40 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



present day, were dead-heads. But the ferryman was not 
compelled to cross the river in a tempest. Foot-passen- 
gers were charged three stivers each, except Indians, who 
paid six, unless two or more went over together.* The 
annual salary of the Burgomasters was also, at this period, 
fixed at three hundred and fifty guilders, and the Shepens 
at two hundred and fifty. A corporate seal was granted 
to the city, in which the principal object was a beaver, as 
was also the case, as has been seen, with the seal of New 
Netherland. 




SEALS OF NEW AMSTERDAM AND NEW YORK. 

The first charter of New Netherland restricted, as we 
have seen, the commercial privileges of the patroons ; but 
in the year 1640 they were extended to "all free colonists," 
and the stockholders in the Dutch Company. Neverthe- 
less, the latter body adhered to onerous imports, for its 
own benefit, and required a duty of ten per cent, on all 
goods shipped to New Netherland, and five upon return 
cargoes, excepting peltry, which paid ten at Manhattan, 
before exported. The prohibition of manufactures within 
the province was now abolished, and the Company renewed 
its promise to send over " as many blacks as possible." 

In 1643, the colonists easily obtained goods 
from the Company's warehouse, whither they 
were obliged to bring their fur purchases, before ship- 



1643. 



* On the 19th of March, 1658, the New Amsterdam and Long Island Ferry 
was put up at auction, and leased for three hundred guilders per annum. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 41 

merit to Holland. The furs were then generally sold at 
Amsterdam, under the supervision of the patroon, whose 
share, at first, was one-half, but was afterward reduced to 
one-sixth. Under this system, the price of a beaver's 
skin, which before 1642 had been six, now rose to ten 
" fathoms." It was, therefore, considered proper for the 
colonial authorities to regulate this traffic ; and they, 
accordingly, fixed the price at nine " fathoms " of white 
wampum, at the same time fordidding all persons to 
" go into the bush to trade." Another proclamation 
declared that " no inhabitants of the colonies should pre- 
sume to buy any goods from the residents." It would 
appear, however, that these ordinances could not be en- 
forced ; for a sloop, soon after arriving with a cargo, the 
colonists purchased what they wanted. The commissary 
was then ordered to search the houses for concealed goods. 
But the old record naively sayjs : " The Sellout gossipped, 
without making a search." 

In 1644, the ever-busy New Englanders — im- 

n li 1644. 

agining that the beavers came from "a great lake 
in the northwest part" of their patent — began to covet a 
share in the fur trade on the Delaware. Accordingly, an 
expedition was dispatched from Boston to " sail up the 
Delaware, as high as they could go; and some of the 
company, under the conduct of Mr. William Aspinwall, a 
good artist, and one who had been in those parts, to pass 
by small skiffs or canoes up the river, so far as they could." 
The expedition failing, another bark " was sent out the 
same year, from Boston, to trade at Delaware." Winter- 
ing in the bay, during the spring she went to the Mary- 
land side, and in three weeks obtained five hundred 
beaver-skins— a " good parcel." But this second Boston 
trading voyage was ruined by the savages; for, as the 
bark was leaving, fifteen Indians came aboard, " as if they 
would trade again," and suddenly drawing their hatchets 

6 



42 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 

from under their coats, killed the captain, with three of 
the crew, and then rifled the vessel of all her goods. 

This continued interference of New England adventur- 
ers with the Delaware trade, at length became very annoy- 
ing to Kieft, as well as to Printz, the Swedish Governor 
of the Delaware colony. The Dutch at New Amsterdam, 
as the earliest explorers of South River, had seen their 
trading monopoly there invaded by the Swedes ; but when 
the New Englanders made their appearance in pursuit of 
the same prize, the Swedes made common cause with the 
Dutch to repel the new intruders. The question of sov- 
ereignty was soon raised abroad by the arrival of two 
Swedish ships, the Key of Kalmar and the Flame, sent 
home by Printz with large cargoes of tobacco and beaver- 
skins. Bad weather, and the war which had just arisen 
between Denmark and Sweden, obliged these vessels to 
run into the Port of Harlington, in Friesland. There they 
were seized by the West India Company, which not only 
claimed sovereignty over all the regions around the South 
River, but exacted the import duties that their charter 
granted The Swedish Minister at the Hague protested 
against these exactions ; and a long correspondence en- 
sued, which resulted in the vessels being discharged the 
following summer upon the payment of the import duties. 

During the year 1644, Kieft, headstrong and impru- 
dent as usual, became involved in a war with the New 
England Indians. At this juncture of affairs, a ship 
arrived from Holland with a cargo of goods for Van 
Rensselaer's patroonenj ; and Kieft, the Dutch forces be- 
ing in want of clothing, called upon the supercargo to 
furnish fifty pairs of shoes for the soldiers, offering full 
payment in silver, beaver, or wampum. The supercargo, 
however, zealously regarding his patvoorfs mercantile inter- 
ests, refused to comply, whereupon the Governor ordered 
a levy, and obtained enough shoes to supply as "many sol- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 43 

diers as afterward killed five hundred of the enemy." The 
Governor, much provoked, next commanded the vessel to 
be thoroughly searched, when a large lot of guns and am- 
munition, not in the manifest, were discovered and declared 
contraband, and the ship and cargo confiscated. Winthrop 
says that he had on board 4,000 weight of powder and seven 
hundred guns, with which he proposed to carry on a trade 
with the natives. For such acts as these, Kieft seems to 
have been equally detested by Indians and Dutch, the for- 
mer desiring his removal, and daily crying, " Wouter ! 
Wouter ! " meaning Wouter Van T wilier, his immediate 
predecessor. 

Meanwhile, the Indian war continued ; the Dutch set- 
tlers were in danger of utter destruction ; and the expenses 
of the soldiery could not be met. Neither could the West 
India Company send aid to its unfortunate colony, as that 
body had been made bankrupt by its military operations 
in Brazil. A bill of exchange, drawn by Kieft upon the 
Amsterdam Chamber, came back protested. The demands 
for public money were too pressing to await the slow pro- 
ceedings of an admiralty court ; and accordingly, soon after 
this, on the 29th of May, 1644, a privateer, the La Garcc, 
Captain Blauvelt, having been commissioned by the Gov- 
ernor to cruise in the West Indies, returned to Manhattan 
with two rich Spanish prizes. 

Director Kieft now proposed to replenish the Provis- 
ional Treasury by an excise on wine, beer, brandy, and 
beaver-skins. This was opposed by his official advisers, 
or the so-called "Eight Men," because they thought such 
an act would be oppressive, and the right of taxation be- 
longed to sovereignty, and not to an inferior officer in 
New Netherland. An old account says that the Director 
was " very much offended," and sharply reprimanded the 
people's representatives, declaring, " I have more power 
here than the Company has itself; therefore, I may do 



44 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



and suffer in this country what I please ; I am my own 
master." * * * Remaining immovable, however, he 
three days afterward arbitrarily ordered "that on each 
barrel of beer tapped, an excise duty of two guilders 
should be paid — one-half by the brewer, and one-half by 
the publican." But those Burghers who did not retail it 
were to pay only one-half as much. On every quart of 
brandy and wine also, four stivers were to be paid, and 
on every beaver-skin one guilder. Besides the excise on 
the beer, the brewers were also required to make a return 
of the quantity they brewed ; but upon their sternly 
refusing to pay the unjust tribute, judgment was obtained 
against them, and their beer "given as a prize to the 
soldiers." 




STREET VIEW IN ANCIENT ALBANY, 



But notwithstanding all the efforts to restrain illicit 
traffic, it still continued at Rensselaerswyck (Albany), 
where three or four thousand furs had been carried away 
by unlicensed traders. Van Rensselaer, " as the first and 
oldest " patroon on the river, resolved that no one should 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



45 



" presume to abuse " his acquired rights, aud erected a 
fort on Beeleu Island. A claim of " staple right" was set 
up, and Nicholas Koorn was appointed " Wacht-Meester," 
to levy a toll of five guilders upon all vessels passing by, 
except those of the West India Company, and to make 
them lower their colors to the merchant poltroon's authority. 
This annoyance soon manifested itself, for while the Good 
Hope, a little yacht, Captain Loockermans, was passing 
down from Fort Orange to Manhattan, " a gun without 
ball " was fired from the new fort, and Koorn cried out, 
" Strike thy colors ! " " For whom 1 " demanded the cap- 
tain of the vessel. " For the staple right of Rensselaer ! " 
was the reply. " I strike for nobody but the Prince of 
Orange, or those by whom I am employed ! " retorted the 
testy Dutchman, as he slowly steered on. Several shots 
followed. "The first," according to the old account, "went 
through the sail, and broke the ropes and the ladder ; a 
second shot passed over us ; and the third, fired by a sav- 
age, perforated our princely colors, about a foot above the 
head of Loockermans, who kept the colors constantly in 
his hand." 




OLD DUTCH CHURCH AT ALBANY. 



4f) HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

For this daring act Koorn was forth with called to 
answer before the Council at Fort Amsterdam, when he 
pleaded his patrooii's authority. Van der Huyghens, the 
Schout-Fiscal (Sheriff), also protested against "the law- 
less transactions" of the patrooii's wacht-meester. Still, 
the patrooii's agent tried to justify his course, " inasmuch 
as this step had been taken to keep the canker of free- 
traders off his colonies." Nevertheless, he was fined, and 
forbidden to repeat his offense. 

At length the pitiable condition of the New Nether- 
land colony attracted the attention of the Dutch Govern- 
ment. Its originators, as before mentioned, had become 
nearly, if not entirely, bankrupt. To use their own official 
words, " the long-looked-for profits thence " had never 
arrived, and they themselves had no means to relieve 
"the poor inhabitants who had left their Fatherland ;" 
accordingly, the bankrupt Company urged the " States- 
General " for a subsidy of 1,000,000 of guilders to place the 
Dutch province in good, prosperous, and profitable order. 

That body directed an examination to be made into 
the affairs of New Netherland, and also into the propriety 
of restricting its internal trade to residents, with the policy 
of opening a free one between Brazil and Manhattan. 
Upon making this investigation, it was found that New 
Netherland, instead of becoming a source of commercial 
profit to the Company, had absolutely cost that body, from 
the year 1626 to 1644, " over 550,000 guilders, deducting 
returns received from there." Still, " the Company could 
not decently or consistently abandon it." The Director's 
salary, the report continues, should be 3,000 guilders, and 
the whole civil and military establishment of New Nether- 
land 20,000 guilders. As many African negroes, it thought, 
should be brought from Brazil as the patroons, farmers, and 
settlers "would be willing to pay for at a fair price." It 
would thus appear that our Dutch forefathers had some- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 47 

thing to do with the slave trade, as well as the Eastern and 
Southern colonies. Free grants of land were to be offered 
to all emigrants on Manhattan Island ; a trade allowed to 
Brazil and the fisheries ; the manufacture and exportation 
of salt were to be encouraged, and the duties of the reve- 
nue officers -'sharply attended to." Such was the business 
condition of New Netherland in the year 1645. The five 
previous years of Indian wars had hardly known five 
months of peace and prosperity. Kieft, perceiving his 
former errors, concluded a treaty of amity with the In- 
dians, August 30th, 1645. In two years, not less 
than 1,600 savages had been killed at Manhattan 
and its neighborhood, and scarcely one hundred could be 
found besides traders. 

The insufficient condition of the fort as a place of de- 
fense became the subject of serious consideration aftei 
this war, and the authorities in Holland, listening to the 
importunities of the colonists, gave directions for its im- 
provement, requiring, however, that the people should con- 
tribute, to some extent, towards the labor and expense 
involved. In 1647, the subject was discussed in 
the Council of the Director-General, and a resolu- 
tion was passed that the fort should be repaired with 
stone laid in mortar, " by which means alone," it was 
stated, " a lasting work could be made," inasmuch as the 
earth to be procured in the neighborhood was entirely 
unfit to make it stable with sods, unless it were annually 
renewed, nearly at the same expense ; and, as this pro- 
ject required a considerable disbursement for labor in 
carrying the stone, etc., it was found expedient to consult 
the inhabitants, to learn the extent to which assistance 
would be afforded by them. In communicating their resolve 
to the people, the authorities referred to " this glorious 
work, which must increase the respect for the Govern- 
ment, as well as afford a safe retreat to the inhabitants in 



48 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

case of danger." The suggestion was, that every male 
inhabitant, between the ages of sixteen and sixty rears, 
should devote, annually, twelve days' labor, or, in lieu 
thereof, contribute for each day two guilders (eighty 
cents). But the project was found too expensive for the 
means at hand, and the completion of the work with 
stone was abandoned for the time, the work being re- 
paired with earth as before. Nor does it appear that it 
was, as yet, protected by any inclosure from the inroads 
of the vagrant cattle, as the Director is found, from time 
to time, expostulating with the city authorities against 
permitting swine, goats, and other animals, to run at large 
in the town, from which great destruction to the works 
of the fortress ensued.* 

Soon after the peace, in 1647, Kieft, having been re- 
called, embarked for Holland, carrying with him speci- 
mens of New Netherland minerals (gathered by the 
Raritan Indians in the Neversink Hills), and a fortune 
estimated by his enemies at 400.000 guilders. Dominie 
Bogardus and Van der Huygens, late Fiscal, were fellow- 
passengers in the richly-laden vessel. The ship, having 
been carelessly navigated into the English Channel, was 
wrecked upon the rugged coast of Wales, and went to 
pieces. Kieft. with eighty other persons, including Bo- 
gardus and the ex-Fiscal, were lost ; only twenty were 
saved. Melyn, the patroon of Staten Island, floating on 
his back, landed on a sand-bank, and thence reached the 
main-land in safety. 



* This matter came to be considered of so great importance, that, in 1656, 
Governor Stuyvesant again communicated with the Holland authorities 
respecting the improvement of the fort, and received from them a favorable 
response, stating that they had no objection to have the fort surrounded with 
a stone-wall, and were willing, in the ensuing spring, to send " a few good 
masons and carpenters to assist in the work," enjoining the Governor, in the 
meanwhile, to have the necessary materials prepared and in readiness wheD 
the mechanics should arrive. — Valentine's Manual. 



CHAPTER II. 

On the 11th of May, 1647, Governor Stuyve- 
sant, as " Reclresser-General " of all the colonial 
abuses, arrived at Manhattan, to enter upon an adminis- 
tration which was to last until the end of the Dutch 
power over New Netherland. Well might the new 
Governor write home that he " found the colony in a 
low condition." Disorder and discontent were every- 
where apparent, the public revenue was in arrears, and 
smuggling had nearly ruined legitimate trade. Such 
were the auspices — sufficiently gloomy — under which the 
last of the Dutch Governors entered upon his adminis- 
tration. Far from despairing, however, the sturdy Dutch- 
man put his shoulder at once to the wheel. Publicans 
were restrained from selling liquor before two o'clock 
on Sundays, " when there is no preaching," and after 
nine o'clock in the evening ; to the savages none was to 
be sold. The revenue, greatly defrauded by smuggling 
furs into New England and Virginia for shipment to Eng- 
land, was henceforth to be guarded by stringent laws. 
The introduction of foreign merchandise by vessels run- 
ning past Fort Amsterdam during the night was also to 
be stopped ; and all vessels were obliged to anchor under 
the guns of the fort, near the present Battery. For the 
purpose of replenishing the treasury, an excise duty was 
now, for the first time, levied on wines and liquors ; the 

7 



50 HISTOKY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

export duty on peltry was increased ; the unpaid tenths 
from the impoverished farmers were called in, although a 
year's grace was allowed for payment, in consequence of 
losses by the Indian wars ; and, in addition to all this, 
two of the Company's yachts, still further to increase the 
revenue, were sent on a cruise to the West Indies, to cap- 
ture, if possible, some of the richly-laden Spanish vessels 
returning to Spain. 

Stuyvesant, also, seems to have been the first Gov- 
ernor who took pride in improving the town itself. He 
found the infant city very unattractive, with half the 
houses in a dilapidated condition, cattle running at large, 
the public ways crooked, and the fences straggling in zig- 
zag fashion, many of them encroaching on the lines of 
the streets. All these evils he at once set about to 
remedy ; and one of his earliest acts was to appoint the 
first " Surveyors of Buildings," whose duties were to 
regulate the erection of new houses in New Amsterdam. 

The Dutch Company " now resolved to open to private 
persons the trade which it had exclusively carried on with 
New Netherland, the Virginia, the Swedish, English, and 
French colonies, or other places thereabout ;" and the new 
Director and Council were ordered to be vigilant in en- 
forcing all colonial custom-house regulations. All car- 
goes to New Netherland were to be examined, on arrival, 
by the custom-house officers, and all who were homeward- 
bound were to give bonds for the payment of duties in 
Holland. Nor was it long before Stuyvesant had an op- 
portunity of showing his zeal. The *S7. Bemcto, an Am- 
sterdam ship, was found trading at New Haven without 
the license of the West India Company ; but the owners 
of the cargo applied for permission to trade at Manhattan, 
upon the payment of the proper duties. This permit 
obtained, Stuyvesant learned that the ship was about to 
sail directly to Virginia, without having paid duties, 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 51 

as well as without a manifest. The case having thus 
assumed an open violation of the colonial revenue laws, 
the Governor embarked a company of soldiers, who, sail- 
ing up the Sound, captured the smuggler in New Haven 
harbor. This bold act naturally produced a great sensa- 
tion ; and Eaton, the Governor of the New Haven colony, 
protested against Stuyvesant, as a disturber of the peace. 
In reply, Stuyvesant claimed all the region from Cape 
Henlopen to Cape Cod as a part of New Netherland. 
with the right to levy duty upon all Dutch vessels trad- 
ing at New Haven. A sharp correspondence ensued be- 
tween the " State Right " parties, which resulted in the 
Dutch Governor issuing a proclamation, declaring, " If any 
person, noble or ignoble, freeman or slave, debtor or creditor 
— yea, to the lowest prisoner included, run away from New 
Haven, or seek refuge in our limits, he shall remain free 
under our protection, on taking the oath of allegiance." 
The Dutch colonists, however, objected to this unwise 
measure as tending to change their province into a 
refuge for vagabonds from the neighboring English settle- 
ments, and the obnoxious proclamation was thereupon 
revoked. 

About this period, 1648, it became necessary to regu- 
late the taverns, as about one-fourth part of the 
town of New Amsterdam had become houses for 
the sale of brandy, tobacco, or beer. No new taverns, 
it was ordained, should be licensed, except by the unani- 
mous consent of the Director and his Council ; and those 
established might continue four years longer, if their 
owners would abstain from selling to the savages, report 
all brawls, and occupy decent houses — " to adorn the 
town of New Amsterdam." Notwithstanding, however, 
all these precautions, the Indians were daily seen " run- 
ning about drunk through the Manhattans." New York, 
now the metropolitan city, witnesses every day ant] 



52 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

night crowds of such drunken savages in her streets ; and 
it would almost seem that our wise legislators have not 
wisdom or strength enough to frame laws to subdue or 
prevent this great public evil. Finally, at New Amster- 
dam, in addition to all the former penalties, offenders 
against the temperance laws were "to be arbitrarily 
punished without any dissimulation." 

In the year 1648, no person was allowed to carry on 
business, except he was a permanent resident and had 
taken the oath of allegiance, was worth from two thou- 
sand to three thousand guilders at least, and intended to 
" keep fire and light in the province." This was an 
early expression of permanent residence in the Dutch 
province. Old residents, however, not possessing the 
full trading qualifications, were allowed the same privi- 
lege, provided they remained in the province, and used 
only the weights and measures of " Old Amsterdam, to 
which we owe our name." Scotch merchants and ped- 
dlers were not forgotten in these business arrangements, 
for it was also ordained that "all Scotch merchants and 
small dealers, who come over from their own country 
with the intention of trading here," should " not be per- 
mitted to carry on any trade in the land" until they had 
resided there three years. They were also required to 
build a " decent, habitable tenement" one year after their 
arrival. Every Monday was to be a market-day, and, in 
imitation of Fatherland, an annual " keemis," or fair, for 
ten days, was established, commencing on Monday after 
St. Bartholomew's Day, at which all persons could sell 
goods from their tents. The trade on the North and the 
South River was reserved for citizens having the re- 
quisite qualifications. It was declared, however, that the 
East River should be " free and open to any one, no 
matter to what nation he may belong." All vessels 
under fifty tons were to anchor between the Capsey 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 53 

" Hoeck" (which divided the East and North Rivers) and 
the " Hand," or guide-board, near the present Battery. 
No freight was to be landed, nor any boats to leave the 
vessels, from sunset to sunrise. Those regulations were 
strictly enforced, and the high custom or duties exacted 
from the colonists amounted to almost thirty per cent., 
" besides waste." " The avidity of the Director to con- 
fiscate, " says an old account, " was a vulture, destroying 
the property of New Netherland, diverting its trade, and 
making the people discontented." This '"'bad report" 
spread among the English, north and south, and even 
reached the. West India and Caribbean Islands. Boston 
traders declared that more than twenty-five vessels would 
every year reach Manhattan from those islands, " if the 
owners were not fearful of confiscation." Not a ship 
now dared come from those places. Difficulties constantly 
arising between the authorities of the Fatherland and New 
Netherland, the " Presiding Chamber " plainly perceived 
that they must make concessions, or lose all control over 
their distant colony. Accordingly, the " Commonalty of 
Manhattan" was informed that the Amsterdam Di- 
rectors had determined to abolish the export duty on 
tobacco, to reduce the price of the same, and to allow the 
colonists to purchase negroes from Africa — all this being 
designed to show their " good intentions." They also 
informed Governor Stuyvesant of their assent to a 
"burgher government" in Manhattan, which should ap- 
proach as nearly as possible to the custom of " the 
metropolis of Holland." At the time that the colonists 
had obtained this concession (1652) of the long- 
desired burgher government, New Amsterdam 
numbered a population of seven hundred or eight hun- 
dred souls. 

At last, a naval war, long brewing, broke out between 
England and the United Provinces, and, without warning, 



54 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 

Dutch ships were arrested in English ports, and the crews 
impressed. Martin Harpertsen Tromp commanded the 
Dutch fleet. His name has no prefix of" Van," as many 
writers insist. Bancroft and Brodhead are among the 
few who have not adopted the common error. The Dutch 
Admiral was no more " Van Tromp " than the English 
was " Van Blake," or our brave American " Van Farra- 
gut." Tromp, in a few days, met the British fleet, under 
Admiral Blake, in Dover Straits, and a bloody but inde- 
cisive fight followed. Brilliant naval engagements ensued, 
in which Tromp and De Ruyter, with Blake and Ayscue, 
immortalized themselves. But the first year of hostili- 
ties closing with a victory for the Dutch, Blake sought 
refuge for his vessels in the Thames River, when 
the Dutch commander placed a broom at his mast- 
head — an emblem or token that he had swept the 
British Channel free from British ships. These hos- 
tilities between Holland and England encouraged pirates 
and robbers to infest the shores of the East River, and 
perpetrate excesses on Long Island and the neighborhood 
of New Amsterdam. Several yachts were immediately 
commissioned to act against the pirates. A reward of one 
hundred thalers was offered for each of the outlaws, and 
a proclamation issued prohibiting all persons from har- 
boring them, under the penalty of banishment and the 
confiscation of their goods. Forces had even been col- 
lected to act against New Netherland, but the joyful in- 
telligence of peace sent them to dislodge the French from 
the coast of Maine ; and thus, for ten years longer, the 
coveted Dutch-American province continued under the 
sway of Holland. The peace was published " in 
the ringing of bell" from the City Hall, and the 
12th of August, 1654, appointed, piously by Stuyvesant, as 
a day of general thanksgiving. 

During the same month, 1654, Le Moyne, a Jesuit 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 55 

father and missionary to the Indians, immortalized hi< 
name by a discovery which afterward formed one of the 
largest sources of wealth in our State. Reaching the en- 
trance of a small lake, filled with salmon-trout and other 
fish, he tasted the water of a spring, which his Indian 
guides were afraid to drink, saying that there was a demon 
in it which rendered it offensive. But the Jesuit had dis- 
covered " a fountain of salt water," from which he actu- 
ally made salt as natural as that of the sea. Taking a 
sample, he descended the Oneida, passed over Ontario and 
the St Lawrence, and safely reached Quebec with the in- 
telligence of his wonderful discovery. To the State of 
New York it has been more valuable than a mine of silver 
or gold. 

During the year 1654, the Swedish and the Casimir 
colonists on the Delaware took the Dutch fort on that 
river ; and soon after, Stuyvesant avenged himself by cap- 
turing the Golden Shark, a Swedish ship, bound to South 
River, which, by mistake, had entered Sandy Hook and 
anchored behind Staten Island. The captain, having dis- 
covered his error, sent a boat to Manhattan for a pilot, 
when the Governor ordered the crew to the guard-house, 
and dispatched soldiers to seize the vessel. The Shark's 
cargo was removed to the Company's magazine, until a 
reciprocal restitution should be made. The Swedish agent 
sent a long protest to Governor Stuyvesant, complaining 
of his conduct. 

In the year 1656, there were in New Amsterdam one 
hundred and twenty houses and one thousand 
souls. A proclamation, issued at this time, forbade 
the removal of any corps in the town or colony, until the 
Company's tithes had been paid. The authorities of Ren<- 
selaerswick refusing to publish this notice, the tapsters 
were sent down to New Amsterdam, pleading that they 
acted under the orders of their feudal officers. This 



56 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

defense was overruled, and one person was fined two 
hundred pounds, and another, eight hundred guilders. 

The cities of Holland, for a long time, had enjoyed cer- 
tain municipal privileges called " great " and " small " 
burgher rights. In Amsterdam, all who paid five hundred 
guilders were enrolled "great burghers," and they monop- 
olized all the offices, and were also exempt from attainder 
and confiscation of goods. The " small burghers" paid 
fifty guilders for the honors, and had the freedom of trade 
only. This burghership became hereditary in Holland, 
and could pass by marriage, and be acquired by females 
as well as by males. Foreigners, after a year's probation, 
could also become burghers ; and the burghers were gen- 
erally the merchants and tradesmen. The various trades 
and professions formed separate associations, or "guilds" 
and their members were bound to assist each other in 
distress or danger. In Fatherland, each guild generally 
inhabited a separate quarter of the town, was organized 
as a military company, and fought under its own stand- 
ard, having its own " dekken," or dean. 

In the year 1657, "in conformity to the laudable cus- 
tom of the city of Amsterdam in Europe," this great 
burgher right was introduced into New Amsterdam. 

1657 

This was an absurd imitation of an invidious policy, 
and the mother city herself was soon obliged to abandon 
it, notwithstanding Governor Stuyvesant attempted to 
establish in New Amsterdam this most offensive of all 
distinctions — an aristocracy founded on a class, or mere 
wealth. 

In Mr. Paulding's " Affairs and Men of New Amster- 
dam in the Time of Governor Peter Stuyvesant," there is 
a list of the recorded Great Citizenship, in the year 1657. 
As a rare matter of the olden time, it is here given entire : 

" Joh. La Montagne, Junior ; Jan Gillesen Van Burggh, 
Hendricksen Kip, De Heere General Stuyvesant, Domine 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 57 

Megapolensis, Jacob Gerritsen Strycker, Jan Virge, The 
wife of Cornells Van Tienhoven, Hendrick Van Dyck, 
Kip Hendrick, Junior ; Captain Martin Krigier, Karl Van 
Burggh, Jacob Van Couwenhoven, Laurisen Cornelisen, 
Van Wyek, Johannes Pietersen,VanBurggh,Cornelis Steen- 
wyck, Wilb. Bogardus, Daniel Litschoe, Pieter Van Cou- 
wenhoven." These twenty names composed the aristoc- 
racy of New York two hundred and thirteen years ago, 
when umbrellas and carriages were unknown. 

We have also before us the names of the " small " citi- 
zenship, which number two hundred and sixteen. In a 
few short years it was found that this division of the citi- 
zens into two classes produced great inconvenience, in 
consequence of the very small number of great burghers 
who were eligible to office. It became necessary for the 
Government to change this unpopular order. The heavy 
fee to obtain it frightened most foreigners, so that it was 
purchased but once during a period of sixteen years. In 
the year 1668, the difference between "great" and 
"small" burghers was abolished, when every burgher be- 
came legally entitled to all burgher privileges. 

During the year 1659, it was discovered that the Dutch 
colony had as yet produced no returns, and was already 
seven thousand guilders in arrears. It was there- 

1659 

fore determined that, to prevent further loss, such 
colonists only as had left Holland before December, 1658, 
should be supplied with provisions. Goods were to be 
sold only for cash, and exemptions from tithes and taxes 
were to cease several years before the original stipulated 
period, and merchandise thereafter was to be consigned to 
the city of Amsterdam exclusively. The colonists remon- 
strated against this new restriction of trade, which had the 
appearance of gross slaveiy, and of fettering the free pros- 
pects of a worthy people. This remonstrance was well 
timed, and the City Council consented that all the traders 



5S HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

on the South River might export all goods, except peltry, 
to any place they wished. 

In the year 1660, a second survey and map of New 
Amsterdam was made by Jacques Cortelyou, and the city 
was found to contain three hundred and fifty 
houses. It was sent to the Amsterdam Chamber, 
in case it should be thought " good to make it more pub- 
lic by having it engraved." This early map has probably 
been lost. 

The restoration of Charles the Second, in 1661, did 
not produce in England more friendly feelings towards 
the Dutch ; and the two nations now became com- 
mercial rivals. The Act of Navigation had already 
closed the ports of New England, Virginia, and Maryland 
against Holland and its colony of New Netherland ; and 
such at that time was the narrow spirit of British states- 
men, that many Independents and Dissenters desired to 
seek new homes, where they would be alike free from 
monarchy, prelacy, and British rule. 

Nor were these considerations overlooked in Holland. 
The West India Company now determined to invite 
emigration to New Netherland by larger inducements ; 
accordingly, a new charter was drawn up, which granted 
to " all such people as shall be disposed to take up their 
abode in those parts," fifteen leagues of land along the 
sea-coast, " and as far in depth in the continent as any 
plantation hath, or may be, settled in New Netherland." 
Emigrants were also to have " high, middle, and low 
jurisdiction," "freedom from head-money" for twenty 
years, property in mines, freedom for ten years from 
taxes, the right to use their own ships, and freedom in 
the fishing trade. " Therefore," added the Company, 
" if any of the English, good Christians, who may be 
assured of the advantage to mankind of plantations in 
these latitudes to others more southerly, and shall ration- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 59 

ally be disposed to transport themselves to the said place, 
under the conduct of the United Provinces, they shall 
have full liberty to live in the fear of the Lord, upon the 
aforesaid good conditions, and shall be likewise court- 
eously used." A proper act, under the seal of the Com- 
pany, was issued at the Hague, which granted to " all 
Christian people of tender conscience in England or else- 
where oppressed, full liberty to erect a colony in the 
West Indies, between New England and Virginia, in Amer- 
ica, now within the jurisdiction of Peter Stuyvesant, the 
States-General Governor for the West India Company." 
How many " Christian people of tender conscience " 
availed themselves of these advantageous offers, does not 
appear; but the metropolis prospered. A better cur- 
rency was now found to be indispensable, and the burgo- 
masters wrote to Holland for authority to establish a 
mint for the coinage of silver, and to constitute wampum 
(needed for trade with the savages) an article of sale. 
But the Amsterdam Directors refused to grant this 
improvement of the colonial currency. 

A number of breweries, brick-kilns, and other manu- 
factories, carried on a successful business; and the pot- 
teries on Long Island some persons esteemed equal to 
those of Delft. Dirck De Wolf having obtained from 
the Amsterdam Chamber, in 16G1, the exclusive privi- 
lege of making salt for seven years in New Netherland, 
began its manufacture upon Coney Island ; but the Graves- 
end settlers, who claimed the spot, arrested the enter- 
prise; and this, too, notwithstanding Governor Stuyve- 
sant sent a military guard to protect him. 

In the year 1664, the population of New Netherland 
had increased to "full ten thousand," and New Amster- 
dam contained one thousand five hundred, and 

~ •, -n t i 1664. 

wore an appearance ot great prosperity. English 
jealousy evidently increased with the augmenting com- 



60 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

merce of the Dutch. James, Duke of York, was the 
King's brother, and also Governor of the African Com- 
pany, and he denounced the Dutch West India Company, 
which had endeavored to secure the territory on the 
Gold Coast from English speculators and intruders. Eng- 
land, now resolved to march a step further, and, at one 
blow, to rob Holland of her American province. The 
King granted a -sealed patent to the Duke of York for a 
large territory in America, including Long Island, and 
all lands and rivers from the west side of the Connecti- 
cut to the east side of Delaware Bay. This sweeping 
grant embraced the whole of New Netherland. 

The Duke of York, that he might lose no time in 
securing his patent, dispatched Captain Scott, with one 
hundred and fifty followers, to visit the Island of Man- 
hattan, the value of which was now estimated at three 
thousand pounds. On the 11th of January, 1664, the 
valorous Scott made his appearance at "Breukelen" Ferry 
Landing, and, with a great flourish of trumpets, demanded 
submission to the English flag. Governor Stuyvesant, 
despatching his Secretary, politely asked Captain Scott, 
" Will you come across the river?" and the reply was, 
" No ; let Stuyvesant come over with one hundred sol- 
diers; I will wait for him here!" "What for?" demanded 
the Secretary. " I would run him through the body !" 
was the Captain's courteous answer. " That would not 
be a friendly act," replied the Governor's Deputy. Thus 
they parted ; Scott retiring to Midwout (Flatbush) with 
his forces, with drums beating and colors flying, while the 
people " looked on with wonder, not knowing what it 
meant." Scott told them that they must abandon their 
allegiance to the Dutch, and promised to confer with 
Governor Stuyvesant. But when he reached the river, 
on his way to New Amsterdam for this purpose, he de- 
clined crossing it. Still he felt very brave, threatening 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 61 

to go over, proclaim the English King at the Manhattans, 
and "rip the guts, and cut the feet from under any man 
who says, ' This is not the King's land.' " This was, cer- 
tainly, very bloodthirsty; but the good people of Man- 
hattan all escaped with whole feet and bowels. The 
valiant Captain then marched to New Utrecht, ordered 
the only gun of which the block-house boasted to be fired 
in the King's honor, and then continued his triumphant 
march to Amersfort, for another bloodless victory. 

Governor Stuyvesant now ordered a new commission 
to confer with Captain Scott, at Jamaica, and Cornelis 
Steenwyck* — one of the fathers of New Amsterdam, 
residing on his farm at Harlem — was one of the commis- 
sion. It was here agreed that the English Captain should 
desist from disturbing the Dutch towns. The latter, 
however, insisted that the basis of future negotiations 
should recognize Long Island as belonging to Great 
Britain. He also hinted that the Duke of York intended 
to reduce, in time, the whole province of New Nether- 
land — a declaration which was to prove true sooner than 
the Dutch Governor anticipated. 

In September of the same year (1664), Colonel Nic- 
olls anchored before New Amsterdam with a fleet and 
soldiers. His imperious message to Governor Stuyvesant 
was : " I shall come with ships and soldiers, raise the 
white flag of peace at the fort, and then something may 
be considered. The Dutch colony was entirely unprepared 
for such a warlike visit, and capitulated at eight o'clock 
on the morning of September 8th, 1664. Stuyvesant, at 
the head of the garrison, marched out of the fort with the 
honors of war, pursuant to the terms of the surrender. 
His soldiers were immediately led down the " Bever's 



* There is a portrait of Mr. Steenwyck in the collection of the N. Y. 
Historical Society. 



62 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Paafje" or Beaver Lane, to the shore of the North River, 
where they embarked for Holland. An English " corpo- 
ral's guard " immediately entered and took possession of 
the fort, over which the English flag was at once hoisted. 
Its name, Fort Amsterdam, was then changed to " Fort 
James," and New Amsterdam was henceforth known as 
" New York." This was a violent and treacherous seiz- 
ure of territory at a time of profound peace — a breach of 
private justice and public faith ; and by it, a great State 
had imposed on it a name which is unknown in history, 
save as it is connected with bigotry and tyranny, and 
which has ever been an enemy of political and religious 
liberty.^ 

Before following further the course of events, a brief 
retrospect of the commercial prosperity of New Nether- 
land seems desirable. At the period when Governor Stuy- 
vesant's administration was so suddenly terminated by the 
arrival of the Duke of York's forces, the population of 
New Netherland was established at " full ten thousand." 
When New Amsterdam was first surveyed, in 1656, it 
contained one hundred and twenty houses and one thou- 
sand souls, which increased to fifteen hundred in 1664. 
Not quite two hundred arid fifty of these were male 



* As the surrender of Fort Amsterdam involved the less of the entire Dutch 
possessions in New Netherland, the conduct of Governor Stuyvesant, in not 
maintaining its defense, was severely criticised by his superiors in Holland. In 
his justification, he explained that the fort was encompassed only by a slight 
wall, two to three feet in thickness, backed by coarse gravel, not above eight, 
nine, and ten feet high, in some places ; in others, higher, according to the rise 
and fall of the ground. It was for the most part crowded all around with build- 
ings, and better adapted for a citadel than for defense against an open enemy. 
The houses were, in many places, higher than the walls and bastions, and ren- 
dered those wholly exposed. Most of the houses had cellars not eight rods 
distant from the wall of the fort ; in some places not two or three feet dis- 
tant ; and at one point scarce a rod from the wall, — so that whoever should be 
master of the city, could readily approach with scaling-ladders from the adja- 
cent houses, and mount the walls, which had neither a wet nor a dry ditch. — 
Valentine's Manual. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 63 

adults ; and the rest women and children below eighteen 
years 'of age. The same city now numbers about a 
million of people ! New York, on an average, has about 
doubled its population every twenty-three years. Be it 
remembered that trade and commerce became the great 
stimulus of population, and their regulation of the utmost 
importance. The damages incurred by the West India 
Company during 1645-'6, in Brazil, and estimated at one 
hundred tons of gold, rendered some measures necessary to 
retrieve its condition. Trade with that country was there- 
fore opened in the year 16 18 to the New Netherlander, who 
were permitted to send thither their produce, and return 
with African slaves, whose subsequent exportation from 
the Dutch Province was forbidden. Four years afterward, 
the province obtained the privilege of trading to Africa for 
slaves and other articles. In the same year, the monopoly 
of the carrying trade between Holland and this country 
(before in the hands of the Amsterdam Chamber) was 
abolished ; " for the first time," private vessels were now 
entered at Amsterdam ; and, in 1659, the privilege of ex- 
porting produce to France, Spain, Italy, and the Carib- 
bean Islands, was obtained. Thus, the markets of the 
world, except those of the East, were opened to New Neth- 
erland ships. From this regulation, however, furs alone 
were an exception, as these were to be sent exclusively to 
Amsterdam. 

The duties were fixed by the tariff of 1648, at ten per 
cent, on imported, and fifteen upon exported goods ; but 
some difference existed in favor of English colonial but- 
tons, causing them first to be sent to New England, and 
thence imported into New Netherland at a low rate. To 
obviate this, in 1651, the duties on such goods were raised 
to sixteen per cent., tobacco excepted, its eight per cent. 
tax being taken off. In the year 1655, the duties on im- 
ports again were reduced to ten per cent., and, in 1659, 



g4 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

owing to the demand for lead to be used in window- 
frames, this article was placed on the free-list. As we 
have noticed, the industry of the Dutch colonists was 
early manifested in ship-building. At the close of Stuy- 
vesant's administration, a number of distilleries, breweries, 
and potasheries, were in operation, with several manufac- 
tories of tiles, bricks, and earthenware. An attempt was 
also made, in 1657, to introduce the silk culture; two 
years after, mulberry-trees were exported to Curacoa; 
and, as before stated, the making of salt was attempted ; 
but the inhabitants of Gravesend, claiming Coney Island 
under their patent, destroyed the houses and improve- 
ments, burnt the fences, and threatened to throw the 
workmen into the flames. 

Although wampum, or "zeawan" had become almost the 
exclusive currency of New Netherlands (1G64), still, beaver 
remained the standard of value. During the years 1651— '2, 
Director Stuyvesant tried to introduce a specie currency, 
and applied to Holland for twenty-five thousand guilders 
in Dutch shillings and four-penny pieces, but the Di- 
rectors there disapproved of his project. The people 
were thus entirely dependent on wampum, as we are now 
upon " greenbacks," and the value of wages, property, 
and every commodity, was, in consequence, seriously 
disturbed. So it is in this day, and ever will be, with an 
irredeemable currency, whether of clam-shells, thin paper, 
or any thing else, not equal to specie. At first, wampum 
passed at the rate of four black beads for one stiver ; next, 
it was lowered to six ; again, in 1657, to eight; and then 
it was ordered to be considered a tender for gold and 
silver. But Stuyvesant wisely objected, as it would bring 
the value of property to naught. In the year 1650, the 
white wampum was next reduced from twelve to sixteen, 
and the black from six to eight for a stiver. What was 
the result? The holder was obliged to give more wampum 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 55 

for any article he purchased of the trader, who, in return, 
allowed the natives a large quantity of it for their beavers 
and skins; and, to use the plain record of the day, "little 
or no benefit accrued." Nominally, prices advanced, 
when beavers which had been sold for twelve or fourteen 
guilders rose to twenty-two and twenty-four, bread from 
fourteen to twenty-two stivers (eight-pound loaves) beef 
nine to ten stivers per pound, pork fifteen to twenty 
stivers, shoes from three and a half guilders to twelve a 
pair, and wrought-iron from eighteen to twenty stivers 
the pound. Beavers and specie remained all the while of 
equal value ; but the difference between these and wam- 
pum was fifty per cent. The effect on wages was almost 
ruinous. An old record says: "The poor farmer, laborer, 
and public officer, being paid in zeawan, are almost re- 
duced to the necessity of living on alms." 

Those in the employ of the Dutch Company asked 
that their salaries might be paid in beavers, but this was 
refused ; as well might public officers in our day desire to 
receive gold and silver for their services. This deprecia- 
tion of the currency, and the consequent disturbance of 
prices, caused much popular clamor, and various expe- 
dients were adopted to amend the unfortunate state of 
things. The Directors of New Netherland would have 
the colonists consider wampum as " bullion," but would 
only receive beavers in payment of duties and taxes. We 
adopt something of the same theory in our Custom-House 
payments. Governor Stuyvesant raised the value of 
specie in the country twenty to twenty -five per cent, " to 
prevent its exportation." Finally, however, the price of 
beaver in 1663 fell from eight guilders (specie) to four 
and a half, white wampum from sixteen to eight, and 
black from eight to four for a stiver. What a fall ! This 
was the state of the public finances when the English 

came in possession of New Netherland. Some persons 
9 



6(3 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

are met with at the present time who fear a similar 
financial crash sooner or later in our enlightened land 
with its hundreds and millions in paper-money operations 
and promises. 

The public revenue in New Netherland embraced two 
descriptions, provincial and municipal: the former con- 
sisting of the export duty on furs, the impost on Euro- 
pean goods, with the tenths of agricultural produce, 
butter, cheese, etc. ; the latter of an excise duty on 
liquors and slaughtered cattle. In the year 1655, the 
duty on exported furs is stated at twenty-two thousand 
guilders. The expenses of the Government became very 
large, especially from the Indian wars, which also cut off 
the supplies of furs ; so that by the close of Stuy vesant's 
administration, there was a deficit of fifty thousand 
florins, or twenty thousand dollars. The municipal rev- 
enue arising from the liquor excise was of two kinds, the 
tapsters and the burghers — the first paying a duty of 
four florins a ton on home-brewed, and six on foreign 
beer ; eight florins a hogshead on French ; and four on 
Spanish wine, brandy, or other spirits. These rates were 
doubled in 16G2. The income of New Amsterdam from 
these sources was estimated at twenty-five thousand 
guilders. The Company in Holland had now expended 
twelve tons of gold in the settlement of New Netherland, 
and now (1664), when some return was expected for this 
large outlay, foreigners seized and possessed themselves of 
all the benefits resulting from such expenditures. 

We again resume the thread of our narrative. The 
war which broke out in 1672 between the English and 
the Dutch, and which was chiefly carried on by 
the navies of the two powers, occasioned appre- 
hensions for the safety of the province of New York ; and 
Governor Lovelace, the successor of Nicolls, the first 
English Governor, made preparations for a demonstra- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 67 

tion of that character on the part of the Dutch. Nor 
were his fears unfounded ; although, some months elaps- 
ing without any appearance of the enemy, he allowed 
himself to fall into a fatal sense of security, and accord- 
ingly disbanded the levies, while he himself departed on 
a visit to the Eastern colonies, leaving the Fort in charge 
of Captain John Manning. The Dutch, however, were 
not asleep; nor had they relinquished their design. De- 
termined to regain New Amsterdam at all hazards, they 
fitted out a fleet of five ships, commanded by Admirals 
Benckes and Evertsen, with Captains Colve, Boes, and 
Van Zye. On the 29th of July, 1673, they appeared 
off Sandy Hook ; and quietly sailing up the bay, 
and anchoring before Staten Island, soon appeared oppo- 
site the Battery. The fleet then opened a heavy cannon- 
ade upon the city, at the same time that Captain Colve, 
landing with six hundred men, drew up in order of battle 
on the Commons, ready to march into the city. At a 
given signal the men marched down Broadway, where- 
upon Captain Manning surrendered the fort, on condition 
that its garrison should march out with all the honors of 
war. This condition having been granted, the Dutch 
troops again possessed the fort and city. New York re- 
ceived the name of New Orange, and the fort itself the 
name of Fort William Hendrick. Governor Lovelace, 
who, meanwhile had hastened back from his pleasure 
tour, was allowed to return with the Dutch Admiral. He 
received from the English Government a severe repri- 
mand for cowardice and treachery, and his estates were 
confiscated to the Duke of York. 

Captain Colve, now in command of the Province of 
New Netherland, received a commission from Benckes and 
Evertsen to govern the new territory. His rule, though 
brief, was energetic. He at once took measures to im- 
prove the defenses of the fort; and, in October, 1673, we 



68 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

find it stated in one of his orders, that the fortifications 
had then, at great expense and labor to the citizens and 
inhabitants, been brought "to perfection." Anthony De 
Milt was appointed Schout, with three burgomasters and 
five schepens. The entire city assumed the appearance 
of a military post, the Commons (the present Park) be- 
coming the parade-ground. A wall or palisade was placed 
around it, running from Trinity Church along Wall Street 
— hence its name — and block-houses protected the set- 
tlement on every side. Every day the Schout reviewed 
the military, before the "Stadt Huys," at the head of 
Coenties Slip. At six in the evening he received the city 
keys, and with a guard of six men locked the public gates, 
and stationed the sentinels. He unlocked the gates at 
sunrise. The city at this period numbered three hundred 
and twenty houses. 

But the second administration of the Dutch was des- 
tined to be of short duration. On the 9th of February, 
1674, the treaty of peace between England and the 
States-General was signed at Westminster ; and 
the Dutch, having discovered and possessed the beautiful 
country of New Netherland for almost sixty years, were 
now, once and forever, dispossessed of it. On that day 
the old fort became " Fort James," having surrendered to 
Sir Edmund Andros, who had been appointed Governor 
by the Duke of York. 



CHAPTER III. 

Before closing this section, and bidding farewell en- 
tirely to New York under the Dutch rule, it seems fitting 
to glance somewhat minutely at the social manners and 
customs of our early Dutch ancestors. 

The Dutch of New Amsterdam were distinguished for 
their good nature, love of home, and cordial hospitality. 
Fast young men, late hours, and fashionable dissipation 
were unknown There was, nevertheless ; plenty of oppor- 
tunity for healthful recreation. Holidays were abundant, 
each family having some of its own, such as birth-days, 
christenings, and marriage anniversaries. Each season, 
too, introduced its own peculiar and social festivals — the 
" Quilting," " Apple-Raising," and " Husking Bees." The 
work on such occasions was soon finished, after which the 
guests sat down to a supper, well supplied with chocolate 
and waffles — the evening terminating with a merry dance. 
Dancing was a favorite amusement. The slaves danced 
to the music of their rude instruments, in the markets ; 
while the maidens and youths practiced the same amuse- 
ment at their social parties, and around the annual May- 
Pole on the Bowling Green. 

Besides such holidays, five public or national festivals 
were observed. These were — Kerstrydt 1 or Christmas ; 
Nieuw Jar, or New Year ; Paas, or Passover ; Pinxter, 
Whitsuntide ; and Santa Claus, St. Nicholas, or Christ-Kin- 



70 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 

kle Day. The morn of the Nativity was hailed with uni- 
versal salutations of a " Merry Christmas " — a good old 
Knickerbocker custom which has descended unimpaired to 
us. Next, in the day's programme, came "Turkey Shoot- 
i n o-" — the young men repairing either to the " Beekman 
Swamp," or on the Common (Park), for this amusement. 
Each man paid a few stivers* for a "chance," when the 
best shot obtained the prize. The day was also commem- 
orated, as it is at the present time, by family dinners, and 
closed with domestic gayety and cheerfulness. 

New- Year's Day was devoted to the universal inter- 
change of visits. Every door in New Amsterdam was 
thrown wide open, and a warm welcome extended to the 
stranger as well as the friend. It was considered a breach 
of established etiquette to omit any acquaintance in these 
annual calls, by which old friendships were renewed, fam- 
ily differences settled, and broken or neglected intimacies 
restored. This is another of the excellent customs of the 
olden times that still continues among New Yorkers ; and 
its origin, like many others, is thus traced exclusively to 
the earliest Hollanders. 

Paas, or Easter, was a famous festival among the 
Dutch, but is now almost forgotten, except by the chil- 
dren, who still take considerable interest in coloring eggs 
in honor of the day. The eggs were found then on every 
table. This old festival, however, is rapidly passing away, 
and, like Pinxter, will soon be forgotten. 

Santa Claus, however, was the day of all others with 
the little Dutch folk, for it was sacred to St. Nicholas — 
the tutelar divinity of New Amsterdam — who had presided 
at the figure-head of the first emigrant ship that reached 
her shores. The first church erected within her fort was 

* A stiver was equal to nearly two cents in United States money. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 71 

also named after St. Nicholas. He was, to the imagina- 
tion of the little people, a jolly, rosy-cheeked, little old 
man, with a slouched hat, large Flemish nose, and a very 
long pipe. His sleigh, loaded with all sorts of Christmas 
gifts, was drawn by swift reindeer ; and, as he drove rap- 
idly over the roofs of the houses, he would pause at the 
chimneys to leave presents in the stockings of the good 
children ; if bad, they might expect nothing but a switch 
or leather-strap. In this way the young Knickerbockers 
became models of good behavior and propriety. They 
used to sing a suitable hymn on the occasion, one verse 
of which is here given, for the benefit of those readers 
who may wish to know how it sounded in Dutch : 

" Sint Nicholaae, myn goden vriend, 
Ik heb u altyd wel gediend ; 
Als gy my nu wot wilt geben, 
Zal ik dienen als myn leven." 

TRANSLATION. 

" Saint Nicholas, my dear, good friend, 

To serve you ever was my end ; 

If you me now something will give, 

Serve you, I will, as'long as I live." 

" Dinner parties " in these primitive days were un- 
known ; but this seeming lack of social intercourse was 
more than made up by the well-known and numerous tea 
parties. To " take tea out" was a Dutch institution, and 
one of great importance. The matrons arrayed in their 
best petticoats and linsey jackets, "home spun" by their 
own wheels, would proceed on the intended afternoon 
visit. They wore capacious pockets, with scissors, pin- 
cushion, and keys hanging from their girdle, outside of 
their dress; and, reaching the neighbor's house, the 
visitors industriously used knitting-needles and tongues 
at the same time. The village gossip was talked over, 
neighbors' affairs settled, and the stockings finished by 
tea-time, when the important meal appeared on the table 



72 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

precisely at six o'clock. This was always the occasion 
for the display of the family plate, with the Lilliputian 
cups, of rare old family china, out of which the guests 
sipped the fragrant herb. A large lump of loaf-sugar 
invariably accompanied each cup, on a little plate, and 
the delightful beverage was sweetened by an occasional 
nibble, amid the more solid articles of waffles and Dutch 
doughnuts. The pleasant visit finished, the visitors, don- 
ning; cloaks and hoods — as bonnets were unknown — 
proceeded homeward in time for milking and other neces- 
sary household duties. The kitchen fire-places were of 
immense size, large enough to roast a sheep or whole 
hog; and the hooks and trammels sustained large iron 
pots and kettles. In the spacious chimney-corners the 
children and negroes gathered — telling stories and crack- 
ing nuts by the light of the blazing pine-knots, while the 
industrious vrows turned the merry spinning-wheel, and 
their lords, the worthy burghers — mayhap just returned 
from an Indian scrimmage — quietly smoked their long 
pipes, as they sat watching the wreaths curling above 
their heads. At length, the clock, with its brazen tongue, 
having proclaimed the hour of nine, family prayers were 
said, and all retired, to rise with the dawn. 

A model housekeeper rose at cock-crowing, break- 
fasted with the dawn, and proceeded to the duties of the 
day ; and when the sun reached the meridian or " noon 
mark," dinner, which was strictly a family meal, was on 
the table. This domestic time-piece answered every pur- 
pose, so regular were the hours and lives of the people. 
At one time there were not more than half a dozen clocks 
in New Amsterdam, with about the same number of 
watches. But they were strikingly peculiar in one re- 
spect : they were scarcely ever known to go, and hence 
were of very little practical utility. No watch-maker 
had yet found it profitable to visit the settlement; and 



Ill STORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 73 

this was a period two centuries before the invention of 
Yankee clocks. For a long while, time was marked by 
hour-glasses and sun-dials. 

We have already seen the interior of the kitchen, and 
will now go up stairs into the parlor of the early Dutch 
dwellings. Stoves were never dreamed of; but instead of 
them was the cheerful fire-place, sometimes in the corner, 
but more generally reaching nearly across the back of 
the room, with its huge gum back-log and glowing fire of 
hickory. The shovel and tongs occupied each corner of 
the fire-place, keeping guard, as it were, over the family 
brass-mounted andirons which supported the blazing 
wood. Marble mantles had not yet been invented ; but 
chimney-jambs, inlaid with party colors, imported Hol- 
land tiles, representing all kinds of Scriptural stories, 
were quite ornamental as well as instructive. Many a 
youngster has received categorical instruction from these 
silent venerable teachers. 

In one corner of the room always stood the huge 
oaken iron-bound chest, brimful of household linen, spun 
by the ladies of the family, who delighted to display 
these domestic riches to their visitors. Later, this plain 
wardrobe gave place to the " chest of drawers" one drawer 
placed upon the other, until the pile reached the ceiling, 
with its shining brass rings and key-holes. The book- 
case, too, with its complicated writing-desk, mysterious 
secret-drawers and pigeon -holes, came into use about the 
same period, though both were unknown to the early 
Knickerbockers. Sideboards were not introduced into 
New Amsterdam until after the American Revolution, 
and were entirely of English origin. The round tea-table 
also occupied a place in the corner of the parlor, while 
the large square dining-table stood in the kitchen for 
daily use. In another corner stood the well-known Hol- 
land cupboard, with glass doors, conspicuously displaying 
10 



74 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

the family plate and porcelain. Little looking-glasses in 
narrow black frames, were in common use ; two or three 
only of the wealthiest burghers possessing larger mirrors, 
elaborately ornamented with gilding and flowers. About 
1730, the sconce came in fashion — a hanging or projecting 
candlestick, with a mirror to reflect the rays This was 
a very showy article, giving a fine light to the rooms.* 
After this period pier and mantel glasses came into 
fashion. Pictures, such as they were, abounded ; but 
they were, for the most part, poor engravings of Dutch 
cities and naval engagements. Chintz calico of inferior 
quality formed the only window-curtains, without any 
cornices. There were no carpets among the early Dutch, 
nor any in general use among the New Yorkers until up 
to the period of the Revolution. The famous Captain 
Kidd, it is said, owned the first modern carpet in his best 
room, and the pirate's house was the best furnished in the 
city. It was made of Turkey work, at a cost of twenty- 
five dollars, and resembled a large rug. The custom of 
sanding the floor of the principal room, or parlor, was 
universal, and much taste was displayed in the many 
fanciful devices and figures made in the sand with the 
brooms of the smart Dutch matrons and daughters. Our 
Dutch ancestors knew nothing of lounges or sofas, or 
even of that comfortable American invention, the rock- 
ing-chair. Their best chairs were straight and high- 
backed, covered with Russia leather, and elaborately orna- 
mented with double and triple rows of brass nails. In 
addition to these, the parlor was decorated with one or 
two chairs having embroidered seats and backs, the 



* Two of these quaint fixtures, a hundred and fifty rears old, hung, until 
a year or two since, in the parlor of the Union Hall, at Saratoga Springs, N. Y. 
Old visitors will readily recall them. They now adorn the parlors of Mrs. 
Washington Putnam, of Saratoga Springs, the widow of the late Washington 
Putnam, for many years the genial host and owner of the " Union." 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 75 

handiwork of the daughters. Some of the oldest families 
also displayed in their best rooms two chairs with cush- 
ions of tapestry, or velvet, trimmed with lace. About 
the year 1700, cane seats became fashionable, and thirty 
years after came the leather chairs, worth from five to 
ten dollars each. These led the fashion about thirty 
years more, when mahogany and black walnut chairs, 
with their crimson damask cushions, appeared. 

But the most ornamental piece of furniture in the par- 
lor was the bed, with its heavy curtains and valance of 
camlet. No mattresses then, but a substantial bed of live 
geese feathers, with a very light one of down for the cov- 
ering. These beds were the boast and pride of the most 
respectable Dutch matrons, and, with their well-filled 
chests of home-made linen, supplied their claims to skill 
in housekeeping. A check covering cased the bed and 
pillows ; the sheets were made of homespun linen ; and 
over the whole was thrown a bed-quilt of patchwork, 
wrought into every conceivable shape and pattern. 

The u betste" (bedstead) was at this period a part of 
the house. It was constructed something like a cupboard, 
with closing doors, so that by day, when unoccupied, the 
apartment could be used for a sitting-room. In more 
humble houses, the " sloop banck" or " bunk," was the 
sleeping-place. In Dutch taverns, the good vrow or her 
maid opened the doors of the "betste" for the traveler, 
and, like a kind mother, bade him "mel te rusten" — "good- 
night," and always, as an old friend, "hoo-y rees" — "good- 
by." To this day, in Holland, travelers meet similar 
receptions at the taverns ; and all the guests, assembling 
in one room, eat, drink, and smoke. 

Our Dutch forefathers were fond of pure, good milk — 
a luxury unknown to their unfortunate descendants. It 
was the common practice for all who could afford stable 
room, to keep their own cows, and thus furnish their fami- 



76 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

lies with milk and butter. Rip Van Dam, in 1748, kept 
two cows ; and Abraham De Puyster, one of the wealthi- 
est merchants, owned the same number. Good pasturage, 
too, surrounded the town, no further off than the present 
Park. A man with a bell came along early in the morn- 
ing for the cows, driving them through Wall to the city- 
gate, at the corner of that street and Water; thence to 
the fields about the Collect, where the Tombs now stands ; 
in the evening he brought them back to their owners. 

In the earlier period of New Amsterdam, the grain 
was made into flour by pestle and mortar, every family 
adopting this method. Coin then as now was exceedingly 
scarce ; nor was there even any paper currency. Hence, 
grain became as much the circulating medium as " green- 
backs " are at the present day with us. From this cir- 
cumstance, the pestle and mortar constituted the real 
mints of the people ; the pounded grain passing current 
for goods and labor, like bank-notes. 

The horses of those days were bred wild in the woods 
and pastures which covered the upper part of Manhattan 
Island. Thousands of them ran at large, their owners, at 
certain seasons, branding them with their names, when 
they were turned loose again, until winter rendered a 
shelter for them necessary. Such was their great increase, 
that it is said the Island was overrun by the animals, now 
become as wild and dangerous as the buffaloes of the prai- 
ries ; the breed was, consequently, inferior, the price of a 
horse ranging from ten dollars to forty dollars, according to 
the strength, and not the speed, of the animal. This great 
plenty of horse-flesh, however, afforded ample opportunity 
for the fair Dutch dames to indulge their favorite pastime 
— riding on horseback. The ladies, at this period, how- 
ever, did not ride on horseback alone, as is now the fash- 
ion, but were mounted upon a pillion, or padded cushion, 
placed behind the gentleman's saddle (or a servant's), upon 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 77 

whose support they depended. This was the common 
custom, as the roads were unbroken, being, in fact, little 
better than bridle-paths. Early in the eighteenth century 
side-saddles came into partial use. The gentlemen's hous- 
ings were made of bright-colored cloths or velvet, often 
trimmed with silver lace ; holsters were common. 

The literature of New Amsterdam was entirely differ- 
ent from that of modern times In the place of the nov- 
els, magazines, and light reading which now fill the cen- 
ter-tables, there was to be found little else than Bibles, 
Testaments, and hymn-books. The matrons' church books 
were generally costly bound, with silver clasps and edg- 
ings, and sometimes of gold. These were suspended to 
the girdle by silver and gold chains, and distinguished the 
style of the families using them, on the Sabbath days. 

The Sundays in New Amsterdam were, moreover, bet- 
ter observed by its inhabitants than at the present day. 
All classes, arrayed in their best, then attended the pub- 
lic services of religion; and the people, almost exclusively 
Calvinists, attended the Dutch Reformed Church. The 
"Koeck" or bell-ringer and sexton, was an important 
personage on the Sabbath. He not only summoned the 
congregation by the sound of the church-going bell, but 
formed a procession of himself and his assistants to carry 
the cushions of the burgomasters and schepens from the 
City Hall to the pews appropriated to these officials. At 
the same time, the Schout went his rounds, to see that 
quiet was kept in the streets during Divine worship, and 
also to stop the games of the negro slaves and Indians — 
to whom the Sabbath was allowed as a day of recreation, 
except during church hours. 

Small pieces of ivampum were obtained by the deacons, 
and sold at great value to the heads of the Dutch families. 
These, having been distributed among the different mem- 
bers of families, were then taken to church, and deposited 



78 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

in the collection-bags, which were attached to long poles. 
Such was the custom a long while ; nor, in some of the in- 
terior Dutch settlements, has it been entirely abandoned at 
the present day. Formerly, a small bell was attached to 
the bottom of the bags, to remind the drowsy of the col- 
lection. The deacons, being thus prepared to receive the 
benefactions of the congregation, presented themselves in 
front of the pulpit, when, the Dominie having addressed a 
few appropriate words to them, they forthwith proceeded 
to collect the contributions. At that day, also, the " Koor- 
leser" or Clerk, occupied a little pew in front of the pul- 
pit, holding in his hand a rod, on the end of which all 
notices were placed, and thus passed up to the Dominie. 
The moment the minister reached the pulpit stairs, he 
offered a private prayer, holding his hat before his face, 
until, having sought the aid of the Lord and Master, he 
ascended the sacred desk. 

It was also at this time the custom to publish from the 
pulpit the bans three times before a marriage could be 
solemnized. 

The Dutch Church was, at this period, within the fort, 
at the Battery ; and the present Bowling Green, an open 
field, exhibited many country wagons, arranged in regular 
order, while their horses were allowed to graze on the 
green slopes that led down to the Hudson River. And 
here, in the old Church of St. Nicholas, for half a century, 
from 1642 to 1693, the early Dutch worshipped God in 
His Holy Temple. 

Every house in New Amsterdam was surrounded by a 
garden, sufficiently large to accommodate a horse, a cow, 
two pigs, fowls, a patch of cabbages, and a tulip-bed. In- 
deed, the love of flowers seems to have been inherent 
in the Dutch dames. While the head of a family care- 
fully watched the growth of some ancient household tree, 
planted, in accordance with a universal custom in New 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



79 



Amsterdam, directly before the door-way, the matron 
might have been seen with her large calash over her 
shoulders, and her little painted basket of seeds in her 
hand, going to the labors of the garden. Nor is this figu- 
rative. It was the universal custom for a Dutch lady in 
independent circumstances, gentle of form and manner, to 
sow, plant, and cultivate. These fair gardeners were also 
good florists. Where have there ever been found choicer 




THE BOWLING GREEN IN 1SG1. 

hyacinths and tulips than among the Hollanders'? In- 
deed, all New Yorkers may well feel proud of their great- 
great-great grandmothers from Holland. They were fair 
and unblemished religious dames, with great grasp of 
mind, and of exemplary industry. The important task 
of religious instruction chiefly devolved upon them ; and 
the essentials, especially the ceremonials of piety, were 



SO HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

instilled upon the minds of their children. Hence moth- 
ers among the early Dutch were always regarded with 
peculiar reverence. 

The Dutch ladies wore no bonnets, as is still the 
fashion with some ol' the German emigrants who now 
arrive at Castle Garden. At New Amsterdam the fash- 
ionable dress was a colored petticoat, rather short (for 
ease in walking), waist jacket, colored hose of homespun 
woolen, and high-heeled shoes, suitable to a city desti- 
tute of pavements or sidewalks ol' any kind. The Dutch 
burghers wore long-waisted coats, with skirts reaching 
almost to their ankles, and adorned with large silver hut- 
tons. The wardrobe ol' a prominent burgomaster at the 
transfer ol' Now Amsterdam to the British, was as fol- 
lows: A cloth coat, with silver buttons, worth fifteen 
dollars ; a stuff coat, ten dollars ; cloth breeches, ten 
shillings ; a cloth coat, with gimp buttons, seven dol- 
lars and fifty cents; a black cloth coat, seven dollars; 
a black velvet coat, fifteen dollars; a silk coat, breeches, 
and doublet, >ix dollars; a silver cloth breeches and 
doublet, five dollars; a velvet waistcoat, with silver lace, 
live dollars; a buff coat and silk sleeves, five dollars; 
three grass-green cloaks, six dollars each; besides several 
old suits. To these also must be added linen, hose, shoes 
with silver buckles, a cane with an ivory head, and a 
hat. It may be doubted if our present Mayors, with all 
their cloths and eassimeres, possess even one tithe of 
such an assortment of coats, pants, and vests, as this 
official Dutchman, their predecessor, in "ye olden time."* 

In the good old Dutch times respectable tradesmen 



* A little later, in 1000. we rind among a fashionable gentleman's apparel, 
etc.. green silk breeches, tinted with silver and gold ; silver gauze-breeches, 
scarlet and blue silk blockings, laced shirt, a blue cloth stuff and frieze coat, a 
gun and a pair of pistols, a silver-hilted sword, a silver 9poon and fork, a lacku 
hat, a campaign, shut -bob, old-bob wigs, and periwigs. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. gl 

worked hard; none were drones or mere lookers-on. 
There existed but little competition among trades- 
men, as with us. No tempting display of goods in 
show-windows attracted the attention and excited 
the desire of passers-by to go beyond their means. 
Content to sell their goods at a fair profit, they 
secured both good customers and a reputation for 
probity and fair dealing. It was the English who 
first introduced display, fashion, and extravagance. It 
was they who first introduced the custom of keeping 
the shops open at night — a needless and expensive fash- 
ion, and greatly injurious to the health and morals of the 
clerks. In these early days, however, the diligent closed 
their stores and shops at an early hour. All classes 
went on foot; for carriages and wheeled vehicles were 
very scarce. Even physicians paid ail their visits on 
foot; and, in another respect, they differed widely from 
the doctors of the present day — their charges were very 
moderate. 

At funerals, it was the custom to give hot wine in 
winter, and wine-sangaree in summer. Ladies generally 
attended on such mournful occasions, especially if the 
deceased was a female, when burnt wine was served in 
silver tankards. At a later era, on the death of Mrs. 
Daniel Phoenix, the wife of the City Treasurer, all the 
pall-bearers were ladies. 

The working man always wore his leather apron, no 
matter what his employment. Tradesmen were accus- 
tomed to saw their own wood ; and a most healthful ex- 
ercise it was. Nor did any man in middle circumstances 
fear to carry home his "one hundredweight" of meal 
from market. On the contrary, it would have been con- 
sidered a disgrace to have avoided such a burden. 

A greater change, however, in the habits of the peo- 
ple, cannot be named than in that of hired servants or 
11 



82 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

" help." The female servants formerly wore short gowns 
of green baize, with petticoats of linsey-woolsey, receiv- 
ing only half a dollar a week for their wages. Now they 
demand from eight to fourteen dollars a month, and dress 
like fashionable ladies, displaying all their pride and 
show. 

In these primitive days, also, when a man " set up 
business," he invariably took down his own shutters, 
opened the door, swept the store, and dusted the goods 
himself by the gray dawn. Then men grew rich by 
early rising, economy, and industry, and by attending to 
their own business themselves, and not leaving their inter- 
est in the charge of boys, agents, or clerks. The only 
capital of most young men then were industry and punc- 
tuality ; and labor and honesty were as fashionable at 
this early day as stylish young men, defaulting cashiers, 
fast living, and fast horses are now. Neither would any 
sensible matron permit her daughter to encourage the 
attention of any young man who was not his own servant. 

Shortly before the cession of New Amsterdam to the 
British rule, the settlement was celebrated for its num- 
ber of young people, as the children of the early immi- 
grants had then reached adult age. Several daughters of 
the wealthy burghers were married to young English- 
men whose visits were only of a temporary character. 
Many romantic rural spots, everywhere surrounding the 
settlements at New Netherland, w r ere naturally favorable 
to the important business of courtship, and there were 
several places of pleasant resort famed for this business, 
even at that early day. The Locust- Trees was one, upon 
a bluff on the shore of the North River, a little back of 
the present Trinity Church-yard. From this command- 
ing and shady eminence, the eye could wander over an 
extensive vista of river, bay, islands, and the bold, distant 
hills of New Jersey. Here, too, was the West India 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 83 

Company's beautiful garden, on the site of the present 
Trinity Church, with its rich flowers and vegetable pro- 
ductions. A little beyond the town was Maiden's Valley, 
now Maiden Lane, a rural, shady walk, with a charming 
litte rivulet meandering through it. The original name of 
this rustic walk was T Maagde Paatje, or the " Maiden's 
Path." South of this lane stretched the Clover Watte, or 
" Pasture Field ; " and from the present Gold street, hid- 
den in the foliage, a little stream, fed by a living spring, 
came tumbling down the rocks. From John, near Gold, 
a longer walk led to the enchanting lakelet, the Kolck, or 
" Collect," nestling within a circle of forest hills. Like 
many such ponds in the vicinity of old villages, this, 
traditionally, had no bottom, and was said to be haunted 
by the spirits of some old native sachems, the paddles of 
whose canoes could be heard at night, though nothing 
was seen visibly to disturb the crystal waters. All these 
spots were famous trysting-places of the youthful New 
Netherlander. But how changed the scene! Where 
those sparkling and beautiful waters once flowed, and the 
morning carols of the birds were heard, the dark, sorrow- 
ful and simple abodes of the "Five Points" now stand in 
close proximity to the gloomy prison cells of the " Tombs." 
But although New York City, two hundred years ago, 
passed over to British rule, still the inhabitants remained 
Dutch in their manners, customs, modes of thought, and 
religious ideas, for many subsequent years. Sleighing 
was a fashionable amusement ; and a ride to Harlem be- 
came the longest drive among the " city folk." Parties, 
however, often turned aside to visit " Hell Gate," in- 
fluenced, doubtless, by the fact that on this road, over 
the Tamkill (a little stream emptying into the East 
River, opposite Blackwell's Island), was the Kissing 
Bridge, so laid down on the old maps, and named from 
the old Dutch custom of the gentlemen saluting their 



84 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



lady companions whenever they crossed the bridge. 
That was the day also of the " cocked hats " and " cues," 
which stuck out from behind the head " stiff as a poker."' 
The most fashionable gentleman made his appearance be- 
fore the fair one who was to be his companion in the ride, in 
a large camlet cloak, with a very large cape, snuff-colored 
coat, small clothes and thick stockings drawn over the 




VIEW NEAK HELL-GATE. 



shoes to keep out the snow. In addition, a woolen tip- 
pet warmly protected his neck, and domestic-knit mittens 
his hands. People then showed their good sense by 
dressing according to the weather. 

An old chronicle tells us that an Ethiopian, named 
Coesar, had great fame as a driver, fiddler, and waiter. The 
ladies, once upon a time, appeared in linsey-woolsey, with 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



85 



hoods of immense size ; and at noon away went the party 
in high glee, to the jingle of sleigh-bells, to take a cup of 
tea and a dance at Harlem. Reaching there, CaBsar tuned 
his three-stringed fiddle ; when the gentlemen appeared 
in their snare-toed shoes, and the ladies in peak- toed, 
high-heeled slippers. Dancing and skipping the " light, 
fantastic toe" immediately begun, and continued until 







^ >H *fiA 



A'Y']<* '>A'"' 



TURTLE BAT AND BLACKWELL'S ISLAND. 

eight o'clock in the evening, when they again hastened 
back to the city; for " to be out" after nine, on common 
occasions, was considered a certain sign of bad morals. 

The earliest Dutch emigrants to New York left their 
deep impress upon the city and upon the State. Far- 
reaching commerce, which immortalized Old Amsterdam 



86 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

in the seventeenth century, soon provoked the envy of 
New Amsterdam's neighbors, and in the end made our city 
the emporium of the Western World. Oar ancestors left 
children and children's children, who were well fitted to 
act important parts in the great work of opening the 
American continent to European Christian civilization. 
They brought with them honest maxims, industry, and 
the liberal ideas of their Fatherland — their school-masters, 
their dominies, and their Bibles. In the course of events, 
however, New Netherland passed over to British rule, 
when new customs, new relationships, and new habits of 
thought, were introduced.* 

* It may be amusing to many of the present generation, so little accustomed 
to the old Dutch names, to read some titles once very familiar in New Amster- 
dam and New York, but now so seldom thought of or understood : 

De Herr — Officer ; or Hoofdt-Schout, High-Sheriff. 

Be Fiscoll — Attorney-General. 

Groot Bingenecht, and Klein Bingenecht, the Great and Small Citizenship, 
early marking the two orders of society. 

The Schout (Sheriff), Burgomeesters, and Schepens, then ruled the city, "as 
in all cities of the Fatherland." 

Gchfim Sell uyner— Recorder of Secrets. 

Wees-Meesters — Guardians of Orphans. 

Roy-Meester — Regulator of Fences. 

Eyck-Meester — The Weigh-Master. 

The word Boss, still in use, a century ago was written " Baas," and literally 
means " master." 



SECOND PERIOD. 
1674-1783. 

From tlie English Conquest to the Revolutionary War and the Termination of 

British Rule. 

CHAPTER I. 

Before entering upon the history of this period, it 
seems desirable to take a ramble about the limits of New 
Amsterdam, and see for ourselves how it appeared at the 
time that the Dutch surrendered it to the English. In 
our walk we will take as our guide a map of the " Towne 
of Wambados, or New Amsterdam, as it was in Sep- ^^ 
tember, 1661," a copy of which now lies before us. 
This is, so far as known, the only plan of the city executed 
in the early Dutch times, and was found a few years 
since in the British Museum. 

The town wind-mill stood on a bluff, within our pres- 
ent Battery, opposite Greenwich Street. On Water, be- 
tween Whitehall and Moore Streets, was the " Government 
House," built, by Stuyvesant, of stone, and the best edifice 
in the town. When Governor Dongan became its owner 
he changed its name from the " Government House " to 
" Whitehall," and hence the name of the street. It was 
surrounded by a large inclosure, one side of which, with 



88 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

the garden, was washed by the river. A little dock for 
pleasure-boats ran into the stream at this point. Here, 
also, was located the Governor's house, between which and 
the canal in Broad street was the present Pearl Street, 
then the great center of trade — known as the " Water- 
side," and sometimes as the " Strand." Near the Gov- 
ernor's house was the " Way-house," or Weigh-house, at 
the head of the public wharf at the foot of the present 
Moore Street. A very short distance off, and parallel with 
Pearl, ran the Brugh Straat the present Bridge Street), 
so named from the fact of its leading to the bridge across 
the canal in Broad. There was a small passage-way run- 
ning through this block and along the side of the "Old 
Church," for convenient access to a row of houses laid 
down on the map. These, five in number, belonged to the 
Company, and were built of stone. In front of them was 
a beautiful sloping green. The canal in Broad Street was, 
in truth, but a narrow stream, running toward Wall 
Street for a quarter of a mile. Both sides were dyked 
with posts, in the fashion of Fatherland, at the distance of 
twelve feet from the houses. On each side, as houses line 
a canal in Holland, stood a row of buildings in the ultra- 
Dutch style, low, high-peaked, and very neat, with their 
gables toward the street. Each had its stoop, a vane or 
weather-cock, and its dormer-window. From the roof of 
one, a little iron crane projected, with a small boat at its 
end, as a sign of this being the " Ferry-house." The 
landing was at the head of the canal, in Broad Street, at 
the point where Garden united with it. This canal or lit- 
tle stream originally went up to " Verlettenberg Hill" 
(Exchange Place), afterward corrupted into " Flotten- 
banck." This was the head of tide-water ; and here the 
country people from Brooklyn, Gowanus, and Bergen 
brought their marketing to the center of the city. Many 
of the market-boats were rowed by stout women, without 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 89 

hats or bonnets, but wearing in their place close caps, 
There were generally two rowers to each craft. 

Further along the East River, or " water-side," a build- 
ing of considerable pretension appeared — the Stadt Hiti/s, 
or City Hall, first erected as a tavern, but afterward taken 
by the municipal government. In front of the Stadt Huys 
was placed a battery of three guns. Proceeding along the 
river-shore, we pass Hanover Square, where two boats are 
lying, and approach the " City Gate," at the foot of Wall 
Street, sometimes called the " Water Gate," to distinguish 
it from the " Land Gate " at the end of the road on the 
Sheera Straat (Broadway). The Water Gate seems to 
have been quite an imposing structure, doubtless because 
Pearl Street was the great thoroughfare and main entrance 
to the town. Most of the strangers or visitors to New 
Amsterdam came from Long Island. 

Continuing our walk toward Long Island Ferry, or 
" Passage Place," and passing by Maagde Paatje (Maiden 
Lane), we come to another public way leading to " Shoe- 
makers' Land " and " Vanderclift's Orchard," both places 
of noted resort. This was the present John Street, from 
Pearl to Cliff. 

At a very early day the tanneries in Broad Street were 
declared a nuisance, and their owners ordered to remove 
beyond the city limits. This they did, and established 
themselves along Maiden Lane, then a marshy valley.* 



* When the Maagde Paatje, or Maiden Lane, was continued through to the 
river, and widened below Pearl Street for the slip called " Countess's Slip," in 
compliment (for some " slip " of hers?) to the lady of the Governor, Lord Bella- 
mont, a market was built there, known as the Yly Market, the " Market in the 
Marsh," corrupted to the Fly Market. Hence, when in subsequent years there 
arose a sharp contest between a New-Yorker and a Philadelphian on the all-im- 
portant question, in which of their cities was the best fare, the New-Yorker 
would boast of his fish, their variety, scores of kinds, their freshness, some even 
alive and gasping in the market. This fact was not to be denied ; but to avoid 
the effect of a triumph, the Phihvdelphian would only, significantly, remind him, 
that however fresh his fish might be, the flesh he ate during the summer months 
12 



90 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Four of the number, shoemakers by trade, purchased a 
tract of land bounded by Broadway, Ann, William, and 
Gold Streets, and here commenced their business. This 
region was thenceforth known as the Shoemakers' Land, a 
name which it retained so late as 1690, when it was divided 
into town-lots. The tanners were next driven from this 
locality into what is even now known as the " Swamp." The 
Vanderclif } s Orchard was bounded by the East River, Shoe- 
makers' Land, and Maiden Lane. Its original owner was 
Hendrick Ryker, who sold it in 1680 to Dirck Vandercliff. 
During the Revolution this tract received the more pleas- 
ant-sounding name of Golden Hill, so named, it is said, 
from the fine wheat grown on it. Cliff Street yet pre- 
serves a part of the old title. Proceeding past Golden 
Hill we come to a large edifice, close to the present site 
of Fulton Market, and marked on the map as " Alderton's 
Buildings," surrounded by a fence. This is supposed to 
be the store-house of Isaac Allerton, who resided at New 
Amsterdam and carried on an extensive trade with the 
New-England colonies. He was one of the emigrants in 
the May Flower, and a notable character in our early his- 
tory. His business was the importation of tobacco from 
Virginia, and this edifice was probably his great tobacco 
depot. 

Continuing our tour, we reach the " Passage Place," the 
present Peck Slip, known for a long time as the " Old 
Ferry." This was the earliest Brooklyn ferry; and its 
rates were regulated by the city authorities, in 1654, at 
three stivers for foot passengers, except Indians, who paid 
six, unless there were two or more. Here Cornelis Dirck- 

was not quite free from taint. Since, from the swarms of the insect in the prin- 
cipal market, it was called emphatically the Fly Market. The poor New- 
Yorker, ignorant of the Dutch language and of the etymologies from it, and 
hence knowing no better than that it was the true name of the market, left 
without a reply ; left to experience what no one can know who has not expe- 
rienced how provoking it is to be obliged in a disputation to give up the point. 



HISTORY* OF NEW YORK CITY 91 

sen, the ferryman, who owned a farm near by, at the sound 
of a horn hanging on the tree ferried the passengers over 
in his little skiff. Still further on there was a little stream, 
on the bank of which stood a water-mill. This brook ran 
into Walphafs Meadow, which covered the present Roose- 
velt street and vicinity. This stream, known as " Old 
Wreck Brook," ran from the meadow into the Kolck 
(Collect), a bridge crossing it on the highway in Chatham 
near Pearl. 

The " Commons " (the present Park) was a well-known 
spot in early New York. Through it passed the post-road 
to Boston, the present Chatham Street, and for many years 
this was the place for public executions. North of the 
Commons or the VlacJcte (the " Flat "), lay the Fresh- Water 
Pond (to which allusion has already been made) with its 
neighboring district Kolck Book, or Collect, below the Com- 
mons.* Near the Collect rose Potter's Hill. At its foot, 
followed the " Owl's Kill," leading the waters of that pond 
through the marshes of " Wolfert's Valley " to the East 
River. Toward the river was the Swamp, the present 
Ferry Street and neighborhood, a low marshy place, cov- 
ered with bushes and briars. t 

* As the city gradually extended its limits, the powder-house, at first built 
on the Commons, was considered unsafe, and a new magazine was built in 1728 
upon a secluded little island in the Fresh- Water Pond. Not far from this place, 
in the course of the following year, Noe Willey, of London, gave to his three 
sons in New York the ground for a Jewish cemetery. It was bounded by 
Chatham, Catharine and Oliver Streets, and was to be held forever as a burial 
place for the Israelites. But the wishes of the old Hebrew have been violated 
long since, for Chatham Street now runs through the sacred inclosure, and 
Mammon has erected a bank and stores upon the spot. Some tomb-stones, 
however, still stand, like grim sentinels, to keep guard over this once hallowed 
and venerable grave-yard. 

f In 1744, this tract was sold for £200 to Jacobus Roosevelt, who divided it 
into fifty lots and established on them several tanneries. This indicated its 
future destiny, and ever since it has been the center of the large leather trade 
of the city. More immense fortunes have been made about that region than 
any other of the same extent in the city. It was originally called Beekman's 
Swamp, and leased to Rip Van Dam, a member of the Council, for twenty-one 
years, at a yearly rent of twenty shillings. 



92 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

The city-wall, called the " Lingel" or ramparts, was 
a row of palisades, with embankments nine feet high and 
four wide, on which several canon were mounted on bas- 
tions. Two large stone points were afterward added — 
one on the corner of Broadway and Wall, called " Ilollan- 
dia" and the other on the north-west corner of Wall and 
William, known as " Ztalandia" These completely com- 
manded the whole front of the city -wall. 

Retracing our steps into town, we have now leisure 
to examine more carefully the canal, which is laid down 
as running through the entire length of Broad Street. 
Thirty years later this canal was filled up. It had a little 
branch running toward the west through Beaver Street. 
The Steeregraft, or main canal, appears to have been 
crossed by two principal bridges, one at Bridge and the 
other at Stone Street, with smaller ones, evidently de- 
signed for foot-passengers. Near Beaver Street, small 
boats or canoes lay moored in the canal. 

Pearl Street then, and many years afterward, formed 
the river bank. Water and South Streets have both been 
reclaimed from the water. On the west side of Broad- 
way, above the grave-yard, at the present Morris Street, 
were the country-seats of Messrs. Vandergrist and Van 
Dyck. On Whitehall Street stood the parsonage of the 
Dutch Dominie, with its garden of beautiful tulips and 
hyacinths, and its paths of cedar and clipped box. Close 
at hand stood the bakery, brewery, and warehouse of the 
Company. In William, near Pearl, was the old horse- 
mill, erected, it will be remembered, by Director Minuit, 
and which did good service until superseded by the three 
wind-mills of Van Twiller. One of these stood on State 
Street, and was the most prominent object seen on ap- 
proaching the city from the bay. The old fort itself was 
bounded by Bridge, Whitehall, and State Streets, and the 
Bowling Green. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 93 

Two main roads led from the fort at the Battery 
toward the northern part of the island. One of these, 
afterward the " Boston, or the old Post Road," followed 
Broadway to the Park, and then extended through Chat- 
ham, Duane, William, and Pearl Streets to the Bowery.* 
Along the Bowery road lay " Steenwyck's " and " Heer- 
man's " orchards, with the well-known Stuyvesant's 
" Bowerie " (farm), whence the name. Near the last, 
and in the neighborhood of Gramercy Park, came 
" Crummashie Hill," while beyond were the " Zantberg " 
hills, with " Minetta " brook, which found its way through 
a marshy valley into the North River. Still further 
toward the north, near Thirty-Sixth street and Fourth 
Avenue, rose the " Incleberg" or "Beacon Hill," the Mur- 
ray Hill of later times. From this latter point there 
was a commanding view of the whole island. The other 
main road also started from the fort, and passing through 
Stone Street to Hanover Square, led along the East River 
to the Brooklyn ferry. 

Thus much for the outward appearance of New York 
at this time. In regard to its manners and interior life 
we are enabled — thanks to the late researches of the 
Hon. Henry C. Murphy, the Foreign Corresponding Sec- 
retary of the Long Island Historical Society — to speak 
even more definitely. Toward the middle of the seven- 
teenth century a peculiar religious sect existed in West- 
phalia. They were known as Labadists, and professed a 
kind of mysticism, holding, nevertheless, to the tenets of 
the Dutch Reformed Church. In the summer of 
1679 two of their number were sent over to 
America, with the view of ascertaining the nature of the 

* In the year 169(5 the first hackney-coach was introduced upon the Bowery 
road. Previous to this time, with the exception of the Governor's, private 
coaches were unknown. 



94 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

country and government, and selecting a suitable place 
for the establishment of a colony of the religious com- 
munity to which they belonged. The journal which 
they kept during their stay in America is of great in- 
terest, particularly that portion having reference to their 
visit to New York; for, aside from the quaintness and 
originality of the narrative, it is of peculiar value, as 
giving an inside view of the people of New Amsterdam 
at this time. As there were but a very small number of 
copies printed, and the circulation is therefore extremely 
limited, we shall take the liberty of quoting somewhat 
extensively from the work itself. * 

" Having then fortunately arrived, by the blessing of the Lord, before the 
City of New York, on Saturday, the 23d day of September, we stepped ashore 
about four o'clock in the afternoon, in company with Gerrit, our fellow-passen- 
ger, who would conduct us in this strange place. He had lived here a long 
time, and had married his wife here, although she and his children were living 
at present at Zvvolle. We went along with him, but as he met many of his old 
acquaintances on the way, we were constantly stopped. He first took us to the 
house of one of his friends, who welcomed him and us, and offered us some of 
the fruit of the country, very fine peaches and full-grown apples, which filled 
our hearts with thankfulness to God. This fruit was exceedingly fair and 
good, and pleasant to the taste ; much better than that in Holland or elsewhere, 
though I believe our long fasting and craving of food made it so agreeable. 
After taking a glass of Madeira, we proceeded on to Gerrit's father-in-law's, a 
very old man, half lame, and unable either to walk or stand, who fell upon the 
neck of his son-in-law, welcoming him with tears of joy. The old woman was 
also very glad. This good man was born in Vlissingen, and was named Jacob 
Swart. He had been formerly a master-carpenter at Amsterdam, but had lived 
in this country upwards of forty-five years. After we had been here a little 
while, we left our traveling-bag, and went out to take a walk in the fields. It 
was strange to us to feel such stability under us, although it seemed as if the 
earth itself moved under our feet like the ship had done for three months past, 
and our body also still swayed after the manner of the rolling of the sea ; but 
this sensation gradually passed off in the course of a few days. As we walked 
along we saw in different gardens trees full of apples of various kinds, and so 
laden with peaches and other fruit that one might doubt whether there were 
more leaves or fruit on them. I have never seen in Europe, in the best sea- 
sons, such an overflowing abundance. When we had finished our tour and 

* This journal was found in manuscript, a few years since, in Holland, by 
Mr. Murphy, who, perceiving its value, presented it to the Long Island Histori- 
cal Society, by whom a few copies were printed for the members in 1867. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 95 

given our guide several letters to deliver, we returned to his father-in-law's, 
who regaled us in the evening with milk, which refreshed us much. We had 
so many peaches set before us that we Were timid about eating them, though 
we experienced no ill effects from them. We remained there to sleep, which 
was the first time in nine or ten weeks that we had lain down upon a bed un- 
dressed, and able to yield ourselves to sleep without apprehension of danger. 

"24th, Sunday. We rested well through the night. I was surprised on 
waking up to find my comrade had already dressed himself and breakfasted upon' 
peaches. We walked out awhile in the fine, pure morning air, along the mar- 
gin of the clear running water of the sea, which is driven up this river at every 
tide. As it was Sunday, in order to avoid scandal and for other reasons, we 
did not wish to absent ourselves from church. We therefore went, and found 
there truly a wild, worldly world. I say wild, not only because the people are 
wild, as they call it in Europe, but because most all the people who go there 
to live, or who are born there, partake somewhat of the nature of the coun- 
try, that is, peculiar to the land where they live. We heard a minister preach 
who had come from the up-river country, from Fort Orange, where his residence 
is, an old man named Domine Schaats, of Amsterdam. * * * " This Schaats 
then preached. He had a defect in the left eye, and used such strange gestures 
and language that I think I never in all my life heard anything more miser- 
able ; indeed, I can compare him with no one better than with one Do. Van Ecke, 
lately the minister at Armuyden, in Zeeland, more in life, conversation, and ges- 
tures than in person. As it is not strange in these countries to have men as min- 
isters who drink, we could imagine nothing else than that he had been drinking 
a little this morning. His text was, Come unto me all ye, &c, but he was so 
rough that even the roughest and most godless of our sailors were astonished. 

" The church being in the fort, we had an opportunity to look through the 
latter, as we had come too early for preaching. It is not large ; it has four 
points or batteries ; it has no moat outside, but is inclosed with a double row 
of palisades. It is built from the foundation with quarry stone. The parapet 
is of earth. It is well provided with cannon, for the most part of iron, though 
there were some small brass pieces, all bearing the mark or arms of the Neth- 
erlanders. The garrison is small. There is a well of fine water dug in the 
fort by the English, contrary to the opinion of the Dutch, who supposed the 
fort was built upon rock, and had, therefore, never attempted any such thing. 
There is, indeed, some indication of stone there, for along the edge of the water 
below the fort there is a very large rock extending apparently under the fort, 
which is built upon the point formed by the two rivers, namely, the East River, 
which is the water running between the Manhattans and Long Island, and the 
North River, which runs straight up to Fort Orange. In front of the fort, on 
the Long Island side, there is a small island called Noten Island (Nut Island), 
around the point of which vessels must go in sailing out or in, whereby they 
are compelled to pass close by the point of the fort, where they can be flanked 
by several of the batteries. It has only one gate, and that is on the land side, 
opening upon a broad plane or street, called the Broadway or Beaverway. Over 
this gate are the arms of the Duke of York. During the time of the Dutch 
there were two gates, namely, another on the water side ; but the English have 
closed it and made a battery there, with a false gate. In front of the church is 
inscribed the name of Governor Kyft, who caused the same to be built in the 



g 6 HIS T R Y F N E W V ( I B K C IT Y. 

year 1643. It has a shingled roof, and upon the gable towards the water there 
is a small wooden tower with a bell in it. but no eloek. There is a sundial on 
three sides. The front of the fort stretches east and west, and consequently 
the sides run north and south. 

•■ After we had returned to the house and dined, tuy companion, not mailing 
to >ro to church, set about writing letters, as there was a ship, of which Andre 
Hon was master, about to leave in a few days for London; but in order we 
should not be both absent from church, and as the usual minister was to preach 
in the afternoon. 1 went alone to hear him. He was a thick, corpulent person, 
with a red and bloated face, and oi very Blabbering speech* His text was ' The 
elders who serve well.' &C, because the elders aud deacons were thai day 
renewed, and I saw them admitted. After preaching, the good old people with 
whom we lodged, who. indeed, if they were not the best on all the Manhattan, 
were at least among the best, especially the wife, begged we would go with 
their son tierrit to one of their daughters, who lived in a delightful place, and 
kept a tavern, where we would be able to taste the beer of New Netherlands 
inasmuch as it was also a brewery. Some of their friends passing by requested 
Uernt and us to accompany them, and so we went for the purpose of seeing; 
what was to be seen ; but when we arrived there, we found ourselves much 
deceived. On account ot' its being to some extent a pleasant spot, it was 
resorted on Sundays by all sorts of revelers, and was a low pot house. Our 
company immediately found acquaintances there and joined them, but it being 
repugnant to our feelings to be there, we walked into the orchard to seek 
pleasure in contemplating the innocent objects of nature. Among other trees 
we observed a mulberry-tree, the leaves of which were as large as a plate. 
The wife showed us pears larger than the tist. picked from a three years' graft 
which had borne forty of them. A great storm of rain coming up in the eve 
ning compelled us to go into the house, where we did not remain long with the 
others, but took our leave of them against their wishes. We retraced our steps 
in the dark, exploring a way over which we had gone only once in our life, 
through a wleg (salt meadow) and over water upon the trunk of a tree. We 
nevertheless reached home, having left the others in their revels. While in 
their company we conversed with the first male born of Europeans in New 
Netherland. named Jean Vigne\ His parents were from Valenciennes, and he 
was now about sixty-five years of age. He was a brewer and a neighbor of 

our old people." 

********** 

•• 35th, Monday. We went on board the ship this morning- in order to 
obtain our traveling bag and clothes for the purpose of having- them washed, 
but when we came on board we could not get ashore again before the after- 
noon, when the passengers' goods were to be delivered. All our goods which 
were between decks were taken ashore and carried to the public store house, 
where they had to be examined, but some time elapsed before it was done, in 
consequence of the examiners being- elsewhere. At leng-th. however, one 
Abraham l.ennoy, a good fellow apparently, befriended us. He examined our 
chest only, without touching- our bedding or any thing else. I showed him a list 
of the tin which we had in the upper part of our chest, and he examined it and 

* The minister here referred tc was the Rev. William Nieuentuisen. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 97 

also the tin, and turned up a little more what was in the chest, and with that left 
off, without looking at it closely. He demanded four English shillings for the 
tin, remarking at the same time that he had observed some other small arti- 
cles, but would not examine them closely, though he had not seen either the 
box or the pieces of linen. This being finished, we sent our goods in a cart to 
our lodgings, paying for the two heavy chests and straw beds and other goods 
from the public store-house to the Smit's valey, sixteen stivers of zeawan, equal 
to three stivers and a half in the money of Holland. This finished the day, 
and we retired to rest. 

" 26th, Tuesday. We remained at home for the purpose of writing, but in 
the afternoon, finding that many goods had been discharged from the ship, we 
went to look after our little package, wliich also came. I declared it and it 
was examined. I had to pay twenty-four guilders in zeawan, or five guilders 
in the coin of Holland. I brought it to the house and looked the things all 
over, rejoicing that we were finally rid of that miserable set and the ship, the 
freight only remaining to be paid, which was fixed at four guilders in coin. 
We went first to Margaret in relation to the freight, who said she had nothing 
more to do with it, and that we must speak to her husband about it, which it 
was not convenient to do that evening, and we therefore let it go, waiting for 
an opportunity to speak to her and her husband with the captain, and perhaps 
also Mr. Jan. 

********** 

" As soon as we had dined we sent off our letters, and this being all accom- 
plished, we started at two o clock for Long Island. This island is called Long 
Island, not so much because it is longer than it is broad, but particularly be- 
cause it is the longest island in this region, or even along the whole coast of 
New Netherland, Virginia, and New England. It is one hundred and forty- 
four miles in length, and from twenty-four to twenty-eight miles wide, though 
there are several bays and points along it, and consequently it is much broader 
in some places than others. On the west is Staten Island, from wliich it is 
separated about a mile, and the great bay over which you see the Nevesincke. 
With Staten Island it makes the passage through which all vessels pass in 
sailing from or to the Mahatans, although they can go through the Kil Van 
Kol, which is on the other side of Staten Island. The ends of these islands 
opposite each other are quite high land, and they are therefore called the 
Hoof den (Headlands), from a comparison with the Hoofden of the channel 
between England and France in Europe. On the north is the island of Ma- 
hiitnits and a part of the mainland. On the east is the sea, which shoots up to 
New England, and in which there are various islands. On the south is the 
great ocean. The outer shore of this island has before it several small islands 
and broken land, such as Coney Island* a low, sandy island of about three 
hours' circuit, its westerly point forming with Sandy Hook on the other side 
the entrance from the sea. It is oblong in shape, and is grown over with 
bushes. Nobody lives upon it, but it is used in winter for keeping cattle, 
horses, oxen, hogs and others, which are able to obtain there sufficient to (-at 
the whole winter, and to shelter themselves from the cold in the thickets. 
This island is not so cold as Long Island of the Mahatans, or others, like some 

• H Conijnen Eylant, Rabbit's Island. 
13 



98 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

islands on the coast, in consequence of their having more sea-breeze, and of 
the saltness of the sea breaking upon the shoals, rocks, and reefs with which 
the coast is beset. There is also the Bear's Island * and others, separated from 
Long Island by creeks and marshes overflown at high water. There are also 
on this sea-coast various miry places like the Vlaeck f and others, as well as 
some sand bays and hard and rocky shores. Long Island stretches into the 
sea for the most part east by south and east-south-east. None of its land is 
very high, for you must be nearly opposite Sandy Hook before you can see it. 
There is a hill or ridge running lengthwise through the island, nearest the 
north side and west end of the island. The south side and east end are more 
flat. The water by which it is separated from the Mahatans is improperly 
called the East River, for it is nothing else than an arm of the sea, beginning 
in the bay on the west and ending in the sea on the east. After forming in 
this passage several islands, this water is as broad before the city as the Y 
before Amsterdam, bat the ebb and flood tides are stronger. There is a ferry 
for the purpose of crossing over it which is farmed out by the year and yields 
a good income, as it is a considerable thoroughfare, this island being one of 
the most populous places in this vicinity. A considerable number of Indians 
live upon it, who gain their subsistence by hunting and fishing, and they, as 
well as others, must carry their articles to market over this ferry or boat them 
over, as it is free to every one to use his own boat, if he have one, or to borrow 
or hire one for the purpose. The fare over the ferry is three stivers \ in 
zeawan for each person. 

" Here we three crossed over, my comrade Gerrit, our guide, and myself, in 
a row-boat, as it happened, which, in good weather and tide, carries a sail. 
When we came over we found there Jan Teunissen, our fellow-passenger, who 
had promised us so much good. He was going over to the city to deliver his 
letters and transact other business. He told us he would return home in the 
evening and we would find him there. We went on up the hill along open roads 
and a little woods, through the first village, called Breukelen, which has a 
small and ugly little church standing in the middle of the road.g Having 
passed through here, We struck off to the right in order to go to Gouanes. 
We went up on several plantations, where Gerrit was acquainted with most all 
of the people, who made us very welcome, sharing with us bountifully what- 
ever they had, whether it was milk, cider, fruit, or tobacco, and especially and 
first and most of all, miserable rum or brandy which had been brought from 
Barbadoes and other islands, and which is called by the Dutch " kill-devil." All 
these people are very fond of it, and most of them extravagantly so, although 



* 7 Beeren Eylant. Now called Barren Island. 

t The Wieringen shoals in the Zuyder Zee are probably meant. 

X Less than half a cent in our money. 

§ Breukelen, now Brooklyn, was so called from the village of that name in the province of 
Utrecht, The church here referred to was built in 1006, and was the first one in Brooklyn. 
When it was taken down does not appear. " A second church," says Furman, in his Notes 
relating to Brooklyn, 76,* " was erected, on the site of that built in 1006, which second church 
continued standing until about 1810, when a new and substantial church was erected on Joral- 
emon street, and the old one taken down. This old church was a very gloomy-looking build- 
ing, with small windows, and stood in the middle of the highway, about a mile from Brook- 
lyn ferry." Of this second church a view is given in the Brooklyn Manual of 1863. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 99 

it is very dear and has a bad taste. It is impossible to tell how many peach- 
trees we passed, all laden with fruit to breaking down, and many of them 
actually broken down. We came to a place surrounded with such trees, from 
which so many had fallen off that the ground could not be discerned, and you 
could not put your foot down without trampling them, and notwithstanding 
such large quantities bad fallen off, the trees still were as full as they could 
bear. The hogs and other animals mostly feed on them. This place belongs 
to the oldest European woman in the country. We went immediately into 
her house, where she lived with her children. We found her sitting by the 
fire, smoking tobacco incessantly, one pipe after another. We inquired after 
her age, which the children told us was a hundred years. She was from Luyck 
(Liege), and still spoke good Waalsche (old French) with us. She could reason 
very well sometimes, and at other times she could not. She showed us several 
large apples, as good fruit of that country, and different from that of Europe. 
She had been about fifty years now in the country, and had above seventy chil- 
dren and grandchildren. She sa*w the third generation after her. Her mother had 
attended women in childbed in her one hundred and sixth year, and was one 
hundred and eleven or twelve years old when she died. We tasted here, for 
the first time, smoked twaelft * (twelfth), a fish so called because it is caught in 
season next after the elft\ (eleventh). It was salted a little and then smoked, 
and although it was now a year old, it was still perfectly good, and in flavor not 
inferior to smoked salmon. We drank here, also, the first new cider, which was 
very fine. 

" We proceeded on to Gouanes. a place so called, where we arrived in the 
evening at one of the best friends of Gerrit, named Symon. He was very glad 
to see us, and so was his wife. He took us into the house, and entertained us 
exceedingly well. We found a good fire, half-way up the chimney, of clear oak 
and hickory, of which they made not the least scruple of burning profusely. 
We let it penetrate us thoroughly. There had been already thrown upon it, 
to be roasted, a pail-full of Gouanes oysters, which are the best in the country. 
They are fully as good as those of England, and better than those we eat at 
Falmouth. I had to try some of them raw. They are large and full, some of 
them not less than a foot long, and they grow sometimes ten, twelve, and six- 
teen together, and are then like a piece of rock. Others are young and small. 
In consequence of the great quantities of them, everybody keeps the shells for 
the purpose of burning them into lime. They pickle the oysters in small casks, 
and send them to Barbadoes and the other islands. We had for supper a roasted 
haunch of venison, which he had bought of the Indians for three guilders and 
a half of seeicant, that is, fifteen stuivers of Dutch money (fifteen cents), and 
which weighed thirty pounds. The meat was exceedingly tender and good, and 
also quite fat. It had a slight spicy flavor. We were also served with wild 
turkey, which was also fat and of a good flavor ; and a wild goose, but that was 
rather dry. Every thing we had was the natural production of the country. 
We saw here, lying in a heap, a whole hill of watermelons, which were as ]arp;e 
as pumpkins, and which Symon was going to take to the city to sell. They 
were very good, though there is a difference between them and those of the 

* The striped bass, 
t The shad 



100 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Caribly islands ; but this may be owing to its being late in the season, as these 
were the last pulling. It was very late at night when we went to rest in a 
Kermis bed, as it is called, in the corner of the hearth, alongside of a good fire. 
"30th, Saturday. Early this morning the husband and wife set off for the 
city with their marketing ; and we, having explored the land in the vicinity, 
left after breakfast. We went a part of the way through a woods and fine, new- 
made land, and so along the shore to the west end of the island, called Net/jack.* 
As we proceeded along the shore, we found, among other curiosities, a highly- 
marbled stone, very hard, in which we saw Muscovy glass lying in layers between 
the clefts, and how it was struck or cut out. We broke off a small piece with 
some difficulty, and picked out a little glass in the splits. Continuing onward 
from there, we came to the plantation of the Najack Indians, which was planted 
with maize, or Turkish wheat. We soon heard a noise of pounding, like thrash- 
ing, and went to the place whence it proceeded, and found there an old Indian 
woman busily employed beating Turkish beans out of the pods by means of a 
stick, which she did with astonishing force and dexterity. Gerrit inquired of her, 
in the Indian language, which he spoke perfectly well, how old she was, and she 
answered eighty years ; at which we were still more astonished that so old a 
woman should still have so much strength and courage to work as she did. We 
went from thence to her habitation, where we found the whole troop together, 
consisting of seven or eight families, and twenty or twenty-two persons, I should 
think. Their house was low and long, about sixty feet long and fourteen or 
fifteen feet wide. The bottom was earth, the sides and roof were made of 
reed and the bark of chestnut-trees; the posts, or columns, were limbs of trees 
stuck in the ground, and all fastened together. The top, or ridge of the roof, 
was open about half a foot wide, from one end to the other, in order to let the 
smoke escape, in place of a chimney. On the sides, or walls of the house, the 
roof was so low that you could hardly stand under it. The entrances, or doors, 
which were at both ends, were so small that they had to stoop down and squeeze 
themselves to get through them. The doors were made of reed, or fiat bark. 
In the whole building there was no lime, stone, iron, or lead. They build their 
fire in the middle of the floor, according to the number of families which live in 
it, so that from one end to the other each of them boils its own pot, and eats 
when it likes, not only the families by themselves, but each Indian alone, accord- 
ing as he is hungry, at all hours, morning, noon, and night. By each fire are 
the cooking utensils, consisting of a pot, a bowl, or calabash, and a spoon also 
made of a calabash. These are all that relate to cooking. They lie upon mats, 
with their feet towards the fire on each side of it. They do not sit much upon 
any thing raised up, but, for the most part, sit on the ground, or squat on their 
ankles. Their other household articles consist of a calabash of water, out of 
which they drink, a small basket in which to carry and keep their maize and 
small beans, and a knife. The implements are, for tillage, a small, sharp stone, 
and nothing more ; for hunting, a gun and pouch for powder and lead ; for fish- 
ing, a canoe without mast or sail, and without a nail in any part of it, though 
it is sometimes full forty feet in length, fish-hooks and lines, and scoop to pad- 
dle with in place of oars. I do not know whether there are not some others 
of a trifling nature. All who live in one house are generally of one stock or de- 

* Fort Hamilton, which is surrounded, in a great measure, by a marsh, and hence is here 
called an island. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 101 

scent, as father and mother, with their offspring. Their bread is maize, pounded 
in a block by a stone, but not fine. This is mixed with water, and made into a 
cake, which they bake under the hot ashes. They gave us a small piece when 
we entered, and although the grains were not ripe, and it was half-baked and 
coarse grains, we nevertheless had to eat it, or, at least, not throw it away before 
them, which they would have regarded as a great sin, or a great affront. We 
chewed a little of it with long teeth, and managed to hide it so they did not see 
it. We had also to drink out of their calabashes the water which was their 
drink, and which w T as very good. We saw here the Indians who came on board 
the ship when we arrived. They were all very joyful at the visit of our Gerrit, 
who was an old acquaintance of theirs, and had heretofore long resided there. 
We presented them with two jews-harps, which much pleased them, and they 
immediately commenced to play upon them, which they could do tolerably 
well. Some of their patroons (chiefs), some of whom spoke good Dutch, and are 
also their medicine-men and surgeons as well as their teachers, were busy mak- 
ing shoes of deer-leather, which they understand how to make soft by continu- 
ally working it in their hands. They had dogs, fowls, and hogs, which they 
learn by degrees from the Europeans how to manage better. They had, also, 
peach-trees, which were well laden. Towards the last, we asked them for some 
peaches, and they answered : ' Go and pick them,' which showed their polite- 
ness. However, in order not to offend them, we went off and pulled some. 
Although they are such a poor, miserable people, they are, nevertheless, licen- 
tious and proud, and given to knavery and scoffing. Seeing a very old woman 
among them, we inquired how old she was, when some young fellows, laughing 
and jeering, answered twenty years, while it was evident to us she was not less 
than a hundred. We observed here the manner in which they travel with their 
children, a woman having one which she carried on her back. The little thing 
clung tight around her neck like a cat, where it was kept secure by means of a 
piece of daffels, their usual garment. Its head, back, and buttocks, were en- 
tirely tiat. How that happened to be so we will relate hereafter, as we now 
only make mention of what we saw. 



" 4th, Wednesday. We slept for the night in our old place. In the morn- 
ing the horses were harnessed to the wagon for the purpose of carrying us to 
the city, and bringing back some medicines which had arrived for him (Jaques) 
from Holland in our ship. We breakfasted to our full, and rode first to the 
bay, where we had left our traveling-bag. Seeing there was nothing to be 
accomplished with our Jan Theunissen, all his great promises having vanished 
without the least result, though they had cost us dearly enough, we let that 
rest quiet, and taking our leave, rode on to 't Vlacke Bos, a village situated 
about an hour and a half's distance from there, upon the same plain, which is 
very large. This village seems to have better farms than the bay, and yields 
full as much revenue. Riding through it, we came to the woods and hills, 
which are very stony and uncomfortable to ride over. We rode over them, 
and passed through the village of Breukelen to the ferry, and leaving the 
wagon there, we crossed over the river and arrived at home at noon, where we 
were able to rest a little, and where our old people were glad to see us. We sent 
back to Jaqueshalf of our tincture calimanaris, and half of our balsam sulphur- 



102 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

eous, and some other things. He had been of service to us in several respects, 
as he promised to be, and that with perfect willingness. 

********** 

" 6th, Friday. We remained in the house during the forenoon, but after 
having dined we went out about two o'clock to explore the island of Manathans. 
This island runs east and west, or somewhat more northerly ; on the north side of 
it is the North River, by which it is separated from the main-land on the north ; 
on the east end it is separated from the main-land by a creek, or rather a 
branch of the North River, emptying itself into the East River. They can go 
over this creek at dead low water, upon rocks and reefs, at the place called 
Spytden duyvel. This creek coming into the East River forms with it the two 
Barents islands* At the west end of these two running waters, that is, where 
they come together to the east of these islands, they make, with the rocks and 
reefs, such a frightful eddy and whirlpool that it is exceedingly dangerous to 
pass through them, especially with small boats, of which there are some lost 
every now and then, and the persons in them drowned ; but experience has 
taught men the way of passing through them with less danger. Large 
vessels have always less danger, because they are not capable of being 
carried along quickly. There are two places where such whirling of the 
stream occurs, which are on account of the danger and frightfulness 
called the Great and Little Hellgate. After these two streams are united, 
the island of Manathans is separated on the south from Long Island by 
the East River, which, beginning at the bay before New York, runs east- 
wardly, after forming several islands, again into the sea. This island is about 
seven hours' distance in length, but it is not a full hour broad. The sides are 
indented with bays, coves, and creeks. It is almost entirely taken up, that is, 
the land is held by private owners, but not half of it is cultivated. Much of 
it is good woodland. The west end, on which the city lies, is entirely cleared 
for more than an hour's distance, though that is the poorest ground ; the best 
being on the east and north side. There are many brooks of fresh water running 
through it, pleasant and proper for man and beast to drink, as well as agree- 
able to behold, affording cool and pleasant resting-places, but especially suita- 
ble places for the construction of mills, for although there is no overflow of 
water, yet it can be shut off and so used. A little eastward of Nieu Ilaerlem 
there are two ridges of very high rocks, with a considerable space between 
them, displaying themselves very majestically, and inviting all men to acknowl- 
edge in them the majesty, grandeur, power, and glory of the Creator, who has 
impressed such marks upon them. Between them runs the road to Spyt den 
duyvel. The one to the north is most apparent ; the south ridge is covered 
with earth on its north side, but it can be seen from the water or from the 
main-land beyond to the south. The soil between these ridges is very good, 
though a little hilly and stony, and would be very suitable, in my opinion, for 
planting vineyards, in consequence of its being shut off on both sides from the 
winds which would most injure them, and is very warm. We found blue 
grapes along the road, which were very good and sweet, and as good as any I 
have tasted in the Fatherland. 

We went from the city, following the Broadway, over the valey, or the 



* Now called Great and Little Barn Islands. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 103 

fresh water. Upon both sides of this way were many habitations of negroes, 
mulattoes, and whites. These negroes were formerly the proper slaves of the 
West India Company, but, in consequence of the frequent changes and con- 
quests of the country, they have obtained their freedom and settled them- 
selves down where they have thought proper, and thus on this road, where 
they have ground enough to lve on with their families. We left the village 
called the Bouwerij, lying on the right hand, and went through the woods to 
New Harlem, a tolerably large village situated on the south side of the island, 
directly opposite to the place where the north-east creek and the East River 
come together, situated about three hours' journey from New Amsterdam, like 
as old Harlem in Europe is situated about three hours' distance from old Am- 
sterdam. As our guide, Gerrit, had some business here, and found many 
acquaintances, we remained over night at the house of one Geresolveert* 
scoup (sheriff or constable) of the old place, who had formerly lived in Brazil, 
and whose heart was still full of it. This house was constantly filled with peo- 
ple all the time drinking for the most part that execrable rum. He had also 
the best cider we have tasted. Among the crowd we found a person of quality, 
an Englishman, named Captain Carteret, whose father is in great favor with 
the king, and he himself had assisted in several exploits in the king's service. 
He was administrator or captain-general of the English forces which went, in 
16G0, to retake St. Kitts, which the French had entirely conquered, and were 
repulsed. He had also filled some high office in the ship of the Duke of 
York, with two hundred infantry under his command. The king has given to 
his father, Sir George Carteret, the entire government of the lands west of the 
North River, in New Netherland, with power to appoint as governor whom he 
pleased ; and at this present time there is a governor over it by his appoint- 
ment, another Carteret, his nephew, I believe, who resides at Elizabethtown, 
in New Jersey. \ From this Carteret in England the Quakers have purchased 
the privilege of a government of their own over a large tract of territory 
which they have bought and settled within his dominion ; and it is but little 
different from their having bought the entire right of government of the whole 
of his land. This son is a very profligate person. He married a merchant's 
daughter here, and has so lived with his wife that her father has been com- 
pelled to take her home again. He runs about among the farmers, and stays 
where he can find most to drink, and sleeps in barns on the straw. If he 
conducted himself properly, he could be, not only governor here, but hold 
higher positions, for he has studied the moralities, and seems to have been of 
a good understanding ; but that is all now drowned. His father, who will not 
acknowledge him as his son, as before, allows him yearly as much only as is 
necessary for him to live on. 

" 7th, Saturday. This morning, about half-past six, we set out from the vil 
lage in order to go to the end of the island ; but before we left we did not omit 



* Resolved, a Christian name. 

t Philip Carteret, the brother, not the nephew, of Sir George, is the person here meant. 
He was appointed governor of New Jersey, under the joint proprietorship of Lord Berkeley 
and Sir George Carteret, in 1664, and of East Jersey in 1674, under the sole grant of Sir 
George. He resigned in 1682. and died in December of that year, in this country, leaving a 
widow, the daughter of Richard Smith, Smithtown, on Long Island.— fYhitekead's Ewst 
Jersey under the Proprietors, 36, 84. 



104 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

supplying ourselves with peaches, which grew in an orchard along the road. 
The whole ground was covered with them and with apples, lying upon the new 
grain with which the orchard was planted. The peaches were the most deli- 
cious we had yet eaten. We proceeded on our way, and when we were not far 
from the point of Spyt den duyvel we could see on our left hand the rocky cliffs 
of the main-land on the other side of the North River, these cliffs standing 
straight up and down, with the grain, just as if they were antimony. We 
crossed over the Spyt den duyvel in a canoe, and paid nine stuivers fare for us 
three, which was very dear. We followed the opposite side of the land, and 
came to the house of one Valentyn, a great acquaintance with our Gerrit. He 
had gone to the city, but his wife, though she did not know Gerrit or us, was 
so much rejoiced to see Hollanders that she hardly knew what to do for us. She 
set before us what she had. We left after breakfasting there. Her son showed 
us the way, and we came to a road entirely covered with peaches. We asked the 
boy why they left them to lie there and they did not let the hogs eat them. He 
answered, " We do not know what to do with them, there were so many ; the 
hogs are satiated with them, and will not eat any more." From this we may 
judge of the quantity of them. We pursued our way now a small distance 
through the woods and over the hills, then baek again along the shore to a 
point, where one Webblingh, an Englishman, lived, who was standing ready to 
cross over. He carried us over with him, and refused to take any pay for our 
passage, offering us at the same time some of his rum, a liquor which is every- 
where. We were now again at New Harlem, and dined with Gerosolveert, at 
whose house we slept the night before, and who made us welcome. It was 
now two o'clock ; and leaving there we crossed over the island, which takes 
about three-quarters of an hour to do, and came to the North River, which we 
followed a little within the woods, to Sappokanikke* Gerrit having a sister 
and friends there, we rested ourselves, and drank some good beer, which 
refreshed us. We continued along the shore to the city, where we arrived in 
an hour in the evening, very much fatigued, having walked this day about 
forty miles. I must add, in passing through this island we sometimes encoun- 
tered such a sweet smell in the air that we stood still, because we did not know 

what it was we were meeting." 

********** 

" 14th, Saturday. Being under sail, as I have said, it was so entirely calm 
that we could only float with the stream until we came to Schutters island, where 
we obtained the tide again. It was now about four o'clock. In order to pro- 
tect ourselves from the air, which was very cold and piercing, we crept under 
the sail, which was very old and full of holes. The tide having run out by 
daylight we came under sail again, with a good wind, which brought us to the 
city at about eight o'clock, for which we were glad, and returning thanks to 
God, betook ourselves to rest. 

"15th, Sunday. We went at noon to-day to hear the English minister, 
whose services took place after the Dutch church was out. There were not 
above twenty-five or thirty people in the church. The first thing that occurred 
was the reading of all their prayers and ceremonies out of the prayer-book, as 



* According to Judge Benson this was the Indian name of the point, afterward known as 
Greenwich, on the north side of the city.— New York Historical Collections, second series, 84. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 105 

is done in all Episcopal churches. A young man then went into the pulpit and 
commenced preaching, who thought he was performing wonders ; but he had 
a little book in his hand out of which he read his sermon, which was about a 
quarter of an hour or half an hour long.f With this the services were con- 
cluded, at which we could not be sufficiently astonished. This was all that 
happened with us to-day." 



t The only English minister in the whole province at this time was attached to the garri- 
son at the City of New York. This was the Rev. Charles Wooley, a graduate of Emanuel 
College, Cambridge, in 1677. He came to New York in August, 1678, and left there for Eng- 
land in July, 1680. He was the author of a small volume with the title of A Two Years'' Jour- 
nal in New York, etc., published in 1701, and recently republished, with notes by Dr. E. B. 
O'Callaghan, in Mr. Gowan's interesting series of early works on the colonies. 

11 



CHAPTER II. 

The new regime in New York, under Edmund Andross, 
as her first Governor, dates from the year 1674. An- 
dross was a public officer of ability, but well 
known for his imperious and despotic disposition. 
The people immediately petitioned their royal master, 
the Duke of York, for an Assembly of Representatives; 
but James, who regarded popular bodies as dangerous, 
refused their prayer, with the question : " What do they 
want with Assemblies? They have the Court of Ses- 
sions presided over by the Governor; or, if this is not 
enough, they can appeal to me !" Such was the English 
spirit of oppression a century before it was resisted in 
blood at Golden and Bunker Hills. Upon learning of 
this reply of Andross, Sir William Berkley, Governor of 
Virginia, " thanked God that there were neither free- 
schools nor printing-presses in the colony," fervently 
adding, " God keep us from both !" 

Governor Andross, however — much as he may in after 
years have merited from the people of the Eastern Colo- 
nies the title of the " Tyrant of New England " — governed 
New York with wisdom and moderation. Desirous of 
establishing himself on a popular basis with the people, 
one of his first official acts was to appoint, in 1676, a 
native Hollander-— Nicholas Meyer — Mayor of the city. 
The selection was a good one. Meyer was one of the 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. JQ7 

most enterprising of traders, and, withal, a most respect- 
able burgher ; and although the duties of his office could 
not have been particularly onerous at a time when only 
three hundred and one names were recorded upon the list 
of tax-payers, yet what little he did was done honestly 
and well Nor did Andros strive to be popular alone. 
Aware that no government can be a stable one unless 
placed on a basis of sound morality, he at once estab- 
lished ordinances for regulating the public morals and 
promoting the welfare of the city. " The city-gates were 
ordered to be closed at night at nine o'clock, and to be 
opened at daylight. The citizens were required to keep 
watch by turns, and were fined for absence or neglect of 
duty ; and all profanity and drunkenness were strictly 
forbidden. Every citizen was ordered to provide himself 
with a good musket or firelock, with at least six charges of 
powder and ball, and to appear with good arms before 
the Captain's colors, at the first beating of the drum." 

In 1677 the first native-born Mayor was appointed 
to the Mayoralty. This was Stephanus Van Cortlandt, a 
large property -holder, and after whom Cortlandt 
street is named. Under his administration seven 677 ' 
public wells were placed in different parts of the city, 
chiefly as a protection against fires. 

Meanwhile the necessity of conciliating the Iroquois 

the most powerful Indian confederacy, at that time in 
America — had received little or no attention from the 
people of New York or their Government, The first 
three English Governors of the colony, or rather lieutenants 
of the Duke of York — viz., Colonels Nicholls, Lovelace, 

and Major, afterward Sir Edmund Andros bestoAved 

but inconsiderable attention upon the Five Nations, not 
seeming to appreciate either the importance of their trade 
or of their friendship. Still, the moral hatred they had 
borne for the French inclined them rather to prefer the 



108 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

friendship of the English. But the Duke of York, in his 
affection for the Church of Rome, shutting his eyes to 
what unquestionably should have been the true policy of 
the English toward the Indians, had conceived the idea 
of handing the Confederates over to the Holy See, as con- 
verts to its forms, if not to its faith. Hence the efforts to 
mediate the peace between the Iroquois and the French 
of 1667, which were followed by invitations to the Jesuit 
missionaries from the English, to settle among the Con- 
federates, and by persuasions to the latter to receive 
them. The Mohawks were either too wise, or too bitter 
in spirit toward the French, to listen to the proposal. 
But not so with the other nations of the alliance ; and 
the Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas opened 
their eyes to the strangers in holy garb, causing infi- 
nite mischief in after years, as will appear in the sequel. 

This peace of 1667 continued several years, during 
which time both the English and French prosecuted their 
trade with the Indians to a great and profitable 
extent. The French, especially, evinced a degree 
of energy, and a spirit of enterprise, almost unexampled 
in the history of colonization — planting their trading- 
posts, under the lead of the adventurous La Salle, at all 
the commanding points of the great lakes, and across the 
country of the Illinois to the Mississippi; and stealing 
the hearts of the Indians by means of the ministers of the 
order of Jesus, whom they sprinkled among the principal 
nations over the whole country of the exploration. By 
these bold advances deep into the interior, and the energy 
which everywhere characterized their movements, the 
French acquired a decided advantage over the English 
colonists in the fur trade, which it was evidently their 
design exclusively to engross ; while the direct tendency 
of the Duke of York's policy, originating in blindness and 
bigotry, was to produce exactly the same result. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 109 

The error was soon perceived by Governor Dongan, 
who arrived in the colony as the successor of Major An- 
dross, in 1683. Though his religious faith was in 

. . 1683. 

harmony with that of his royal master, he never- 
theless possessed an enlarged understanding, with a dis- 
position, as a Civil Governor, to look more closely after 
the interests of the crown than those of the crosier. He 
had not been long at the head of the colony before he 
perceived the mistakes of his predecessors in the conduct 
of its Indian relations. In fighting-men, the Five Nations 
at that time numbered ten times more than they did half 
a century afterward ;* and the Governor saw at once their 
importance as a wall of separation between the English 
colonies and the French. He saw, also, the importance 
of their trade, which the Jesuit priests were largely influ- 
ential in diverting to Canada. He saw that M. de Cour- 
celles had erected a fort at Cadaraqui, within the territory 
of the Iroquois, on the north side of Lake Ontario,! and 
that La Salle had built a bark of ten tons upon that lake, 
and another of fifty upon Lake Erie, planting also a stock- 
ade at Niagara. He saw that the French were intercept- 
ing the trade of the English upon the lakes, and that the 
priests had succeeded in seducing numbers of the Mohawks 
and river Indians away from their own country, and plant- 
ing their colonies upon the banks of the St. Lawrence, in 
the neighborhood of Montreal, through whose agency an 
illicit trade had been established with the City of Albany, 
by reason of which, Montreal, instead of Albany, was be- 
coming the principal depot of the Indian trade. He saw, 
in a word, that the followers of Ignatius Loyola were 
rapidly alienating the affections of the Confederates from 
the English and transferring them to the French, and 

* Memoir of Dr. Colden, concerning the fur trade, presented to Governor 
Burnet in 1724. 

f The site of Kingston, Canada West. 



HO HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

that unless the policy respecting them were changed, the 
influence of the English would, at no distant day, be at an 
end with them. Nor had the priests confined their efforts 
simply to moral suasion ; but, as though aiming to sepa- 
rate the Confederates from the English at a blow, and by 
a gulf so wide and deep as to be impassable, they had 
instigated them to commit positive hostilities upon the 
frontier settlements of Maryland and Virginia. 

Having made himself thoroughly acquainted with 
these matters, Colonel Dongan lost no time in seeking to 
countervail the influence of the French, and bring back 
the Indians to a cordial understanding with his own peo- 
ple. His instructions from home were to encourage the 
Jesuit missionaries. These he not only disregarded, but 
he ordered the missionaries away, and forbade the Five 
Nations to entertain them. It is true this order was 
never enforced to the letter, the priests, some of them at 
least, maintaining a foot-hold at several points of the Con- 
federacy — dubious at times, certainly — but yet maintain- 
ing it for three-quarters of a century afterward. Still, 
the measures of conciliation adopted by Colonel Dongan 
made a strong and favorable impression upon the Indians. 

Availing himself of the difficulty between the Con- 
federates and Virginia, consequent upon the outrages just 
adverted to as having been instigated by the priests, 
Colonel Dongan was instrumental in procuring a conven- 
tion of the Five Nations, at Albany, in 1684, to 
meet Lord Howard, of Effingham, Governor of Vir- 
ginia, at which he (Dongan) was likewise present. This 
meeting, or council, was attended by the happiest results. 
The difficulties with Virginia were adjusted, and a cove- 
nant made with Lord Howard for preventing further dep- 
redations.* But what was of yet greater importance, 

* Smith's W.story of New York. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. HI 

Colonel Dongan succeeded in completely gaining the af- 
fections of the Indians, who conceived for him the warm- 
est esteem. They even asked that the arms of the Duke 
of York might be put upon their castles, a request which 
it need not be said was most readily complied with, since, 
should it afterward become necessary, the Governor might 
find it convenient to construe it into an act of at least 
partial submission to English authority, although it has 
been asserted that the Indians themselves looked upon 
the ducal insignia as a sort of charm that might protect 
them against the French.* 

There was likewise another fortunate occurrence of 
events just at that time, which revived all the ancient 
animosity between the Iroquois and the French. While 
the conferences between Lord Howard and the Indians 
were yet in progress, a message was received from M. de 
la Barre, the Governor of Canada, complaining of the con- 
duct of the Senecas in prosecuting hostilities against the 
Miamies and other western nations in alliance with the 
French, and thus interrupting their trade. Colonel Don- 
gan communicated the message to the Iroquois chiefs, who 
retorted by charging the French with supplying their 
enemies with all their munitions of war. " Onontio t 
calls us children," said they, " and at the same time sends 
powder to our enemies to kill us !" This collision resulted 
in open war between the Iroquois and the French, the 
latter sending to France for powerful reinforcements, with 
the design of an entire subjugation of the former in the 
ensuing year. Meantime the French Catholics continued 
to procure letters from the Duke of York to his lieutenant 
commanding him to lay no obstacles in the way of the 
invaders. But these commands were again disregarded. 



* Colden's History of the Five Nations. 

f The name by which the Iroquois were wont to speak of the French Gov 
ernors of Canada. 



112 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Dongan apprised the Iroquois of the designs of the French, 
not only to march against them with a strong army, but 
simultaneously to bring down upon them the western 
Indians in their interest. 

Thus, by the wisdom and strong sense of justice of 
Colonel Dongan, was the chain of friendship between the 
English and the Five Nations brightened and the 
most amicable relations re-established. Yet for 
the course he had taken, he fell under the displeasure of 
his bigoted master on his accession to the throne in 1685. 
It is not, of course, within the purpose of this history 
to trace the progress of the long and cruel wars that suc- 
ceeded the negotiations between Colonel Dongan and the 
Confederates. Briefly, it may be said, in respect to the 
expedition of M. de la Barre, that it failed by reason of 
sickness in his army at Cadaraqui, before crossing the 
lake. He was succeeded in the government of Canada by 
the Marquis Denonville, who invaded the Seneca 
country in 1687 with a powerful force, gaining, 
however, such a victory over the Indians in the Genesee 
Valley as led to an inglorious retreat. This invasion was 
speedily recompensed by the Confederates, who descended 
upon the French settlements of the St. Lawrence like a 
tempest, and struck a blow of terrible vengeance upon 
Montreal itself. 

New York was at this time torn by the intestine 
commotions incident to the revolution which drove the 
Stuarts from the English throne and ended the power of 
the Catholics in the colony. It was a consequence of 
these divisions that the English could afford the Indians 
no assistance in their invasion of Canada at that time, 
else that country would then doubtless have been wrested 
from the Crown of France. But the achievements of* the 
Indians were, nevertheless, most important for the colony 
of New York, the subjugation of which was at that pre- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 113 

cise conjuncture meditated by France, and a combined 
expedition, by land and sea, was undertaken for that pur- 
pose — Admiral Caffniere commanding the ships which 
sailed from Rochefort for New York, and the Count de 
Frontenac, who had succeeded Denonville, being the 
General of the land forces. On his arrival at Quebec, 
however, the Count beheld his province reduced to a field 
of devastation, and he was therefore constrained to aban- 
don the enterprise. 

Nor was Governor Dongan's administration in the 
government of the colony itself characterized by less wis- 
dom than his dealings with the Indians. He was highly 
respected as Governor — being upright, discreet, and of 
accomplished manners, added to which his firm and judi- 
cious policy, and his steadfast integrity, soon won for him 
" the affections of his people, and made him one of the 
most popular of the Royal Governors." Two years pre- 
vious to his arrival, the aldermen of New York, and the 
justices of the peace of the Court of Assize, in conse- 
quence of the tyranny of Andros, had petitioned the 
Duke that the people might be allowed to participate in 
the affairs of the government by the construction of a 
General Assembly, in which they might be represented. 
Through the interposition of William Penn, who enjoyed 
the favor both of the King and the Duke, the point was 
yielded, and Colonel Dongan was instructed to allow the 
people a voice in the government, Greatly, therefore, to 
the joy of the inhabitants, who had become turbulent, 
if not disaffected, under the rule of Andros, writs 
were issued to the sheriffs summoning the freehold- 
ers to choose representatives to meet the new Gover- 
nor in Assembly. He thus gave the colony its first 
legislative Assembly, which, meeting for the 
first time in the city of New York, on the 
17th of October, 1683, consisted of the Governor, ten 

15 



114 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 

councilors, and seventeen representatives elected by the 
people. Henceforth, and up to the period of the Ameri- 
can Revolution, the history of New York city as the 
legislative capital of the province, consists, for the most 
part, in a series of bitter scenes between the Assembly 
and the Royal Governors. The first act of the Assembly 
was to give to the province its first " Charter of Liber- 
ties," by which it was ordained " that supreme legislative 
power should forever reside in the Governor, Council, 
and people met in General Assembly ; that every free- 
holder and freeman might vote for representatives with- 
out restraint ; that no freeman should suffer but by judg- 
ment of his peers, and that all trials should be by a jury 
of twelve men ; that no tax should be assessed on any 
pretense whatever but by the consent of the Assembly ; 
that no seaman or soldier should be quartered on the 
inhabitants against their will ; that no martial law should 
exist; and that no person professing faith in God, by 
Jesus Christ, should at any time be in any way dis- 
quieted or questioned for any difference of opinion in 
matters of religion." Three assemblies, at least, were to 
be held every year ; and should any scat become vacant, 
a new election was to be at once ordered by the Gov- 
ernor. One of the first acts of the Assembly was to divide 
the Province into twelve counties — New York, Rich- 
mond, Kings, Queens, Suffolk, Orange, Ulster, Albany,- 
Westchester, Dutchess, Dukes, and Cornwall — all of which 
names, with the exception of the last two, still remain at 
the present day. 

The Assembly, also, lost no time in bettering the con- 
dition of the city itself. " New police regulations were 
at once established. Sunday laws were enacted ; tavern- 
keepers were forbidden to sell liquor except to travellers, 
citizens to work, children to play in the streets, and In- 
dians and negroes to assemble on the Sabbath. Twenty 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. H5 

cartmen were licensed by the municipal authorities, on 
condition that they should repair the highways gratis 
whenever called on by the Mayor, and cart the dirt from 
the streets (which the inhabitants were required to sweep 
together every Saturday afternoon) beyond the precincts 
of the city. The rate of cartage was fixed at three pence 
per load to any place within the bounds of the city ; 
beyond which the price was doubled. The cartmen, 
however, soon proved refractory, and a few weeks after 
the license system was abandoned, and all persons, with 
the exception of slaves, were allowed to act as cartmen. 

" On the 8th of December, 1683, the city was divided 
into six wards. The First or South Ward, beginning at 
the river, extended along the west side of Broad to 
Beaver Street ; thence westward along Beaver Street to 
the Bowling Green ; thence southward by the fort to 
Pearl Street ; and thence westward along the river-shore 
to the place of starting. The Second or Dock Ward, also 
beginning at the river at the south-east corner of Pearl 
and Broad street, extended along the shore to Hanover 
Square ; thence northward through William to Beaver 
Street; thence along Beaver to Broad Street; thence 
back through Broad Street to the river-shore. The 
Third or East Ward formed a sort of triangle, begin- 
ning at the corner of Pearl and Hanover Square, and 
extending along the shore to the Half-Moon Fort at the 
foot of Wall Street ; thence stretching along Wall to the 
corner of William, and thence returning along the east 
side of William to the river. The Fourth or North 
Ward, beginning at the northwest corner of William and 
Beaver Streets, extended through the former to the corner 
of Wall ; thence westerly along the palisades to a line a 
little beyond Nassau Street; thence southerly to Beaver 
Street ; thence easterly along Beaver to the first-named 
point. The Fifth or West Ward, beginning at the June- 



116 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

tion of the Fourth Ward with Beaver Street, extended 
northerly along the boundary line of the latter to Wall 
Street ; thence along the palisades to Broadway ; thence 
southerly to Beaver Street ; thence easterly to the point 
of starting. The Sixth or Out Ward comprised all the 
farms and plantations outside the city walls, including 
the town of Harlem. Each of these wards was author- 
ized to elect an alderman and councilman annually to 
represent them in the city government. The Governor 
and Council retained the appointment of the Mayor in 
their own hands ; it was not, indeed, until long after the 
Revolution that this office was made elective by the 
people. 

" In 1686 the Dongan Charter was granted to the 
city. This instrument, which still forms the basis of the 
municipal rights and privileges of New York, con- 
firmed the franchises before enjoyed by the cor- 
poration, and placed the city government on a definite 
looting. The Governor retained the appointment of the 
mayor, recorder, sheriff, coroner, high-constable, town- 
clerk, and clerk of the market in his own hands ; leaving 
the aldermen, assistants, and petty constables, to be 
chosen by the people at the annual election on St. 
Michael's Day. This charter, which was dated April 22, 
1686, declared that New York city should thenceforth 
comprise the entire island of Manhattan, extending to 
the low- water mark of the bays and rivers surrounding it. 

" In the same year the city received a new seal from 
the home government. This still preserved the beaver of 
the Dutch, with the addition of a flour-barrel and the 
arms of a wind-mill, in token of the prevailing commerce 
of the city. The whole was supported by two Indian 
chiefs and encircled with a wreath of laurel, with the 
motto, Sigillum Civitatis Novi Eboraci. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY H7 

"In 1687, Stephanus Van Cortlandt was again ap- 
pointed Mayor. During his Mayoralty, it was determined 
to enlarge the city by building a new street in the 
river along the line of Water Street, between White- 
hall and Old Slip, and water-lots were sold by the corpo- 
ration on condition that the purchasers should make the 
street toward the water, and protect it by a substantial 
wharf from the washing of the tide, in imitation of Waal 
(or sheet-pile) Street, extending along the line of Pearl 
street, from Broad to William Street, in front of the City 
Hall. It was not, however, until some years after, that 
this scheme was carried into effect, and the projected 
street rescued from the waters. 

" Measures were also taken to enlarge the city still 
further by placing the fortifications further out, and lay- 
ing out Wall Street thirty-six feet wide. The fortifica 
tions, indeed, were now worse than useless. The palisades 
which had been erected in 1653 along the line of Wall 
Street had fallen down, the works were in ruins, the guns 
had disappeared from the artillery-mounts, and the ditches 
and stockades were in a ruinous condition. Their imme- 
diate removal was determined on and ordered, but was 
delayed by the revolution which followed soon after. 
When war broke out between France and England in 
1693, they were again repaired to be in readiness for the 
expected French invasion, and it was not until 1699 that 
their demolition was finally accomplished. Wall Street, 
however, was laid out immediately, and it was not long 
before it became one of the most important thorough fires 
in the city. During the same year, a valuation was made 
of the city property, which was estimated on the assessor's 
books at £78,231."* 

Many other municipal regulations concerning huck- 

* Miss Mary L. Booth's Ilia'ovy of New York. 



118 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

sters, bakers, butchers, and others, were established — then 
esteemed of vital importance, but a repetition of which 
would only weary. A single item, however, deserves no- 
tice, as illustrating the punishments practiced in olden 
times. A pillory, cage, whipping-post,t and ducking- 
stool were set up in the vicinity of the City Hall, and 
hither were brought all vagrants, slanderers, pilferers, and 
truant children, to be exposed to the public gaze, and to 
receive such chastisement as their offenses might warrant. 
Meanwhile, William and Mary had been proclaimed 
King and Queen of England in place of James II, who, 
having abdicated the throne, had become a wanderer on 
the Continent. This change in the home government from 
a Catholic to a Protestant one, necessitated a correspond- 
ing change in the Governor at New York. Colonel Slough- 
ter was, accordingly, commissioned to the government of 
New York in January, 1689, but did not arrive until the 
19th of March, 1691. The selection of Slough- 
ter was not fortunate. According to Smith, he was 
utterly destitute of every qualification for government: 
licentious in his morals, avaricious, and base. Leisler, 
who had administered the government after a fashion, 
since the departure of Dongan, intoxicated with power, 
refused to surrender the government to Sloughter, and 
attempted to defend the fort, in which he had taken 
refuge. Finding it expedient, however, very soon to 
abandon the fort, he was arrested, and, with his son-in- 
law, Milburne ; tried and executed for treason. Still, on 
the whole, the conduct of Leisler during the revolution had 
been considered patriotic, and his sentence was deemed 
very unjust and cruel. Indeed, his enemies could not pre- 
vail upon Sloughter to sign the warrant for his execution 
until, for that purpose, they got him intoxicated. It was 

* A whipping-post, put up in 1630, is still standing on the Village Green, in 
Fairfield, Connecticut. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. H9 

a murderous affair. Slaughter's administration was short 
and turbulent. He died July 23d, 1691. 

On the death of Sloughter, Richard Ingoldsby, the 
captain of an independent company, was made president 
of the council, to the exclusion of Joseph Dudley, who, 
but for his absence in Boston, would have had the right 
to preside, and upon whom the government would have 
devolved. But although Dudley very soon returned to 
New York, he did not contest the authority of Ingoldsby, 
who administered the government until the arrival of 
Colonel Fletcher, with a commission as governor, in 
August, 1692. In the preceding month of June, 
Ingoldsby met the Five Nations in council at Alba- 
ny, on which occasion they declared their enmity to the 
French in the strongest possible terms. Their expressions 
of friendship for the English were also renewed. " Brother 
Corlaer," said the sachem, " we are all the subjects of one 
great king and queen ; we have one head, one heart, one 
interest, and are all engaged in the same war." They 
nevertheless condemned the English for their inactivity, 
" telling them that the destruction of Canada would not 
make one summer's work, against their united strength, 
if ingeniously exerted." 

In conducting the Indian affairs of the colony, Colonel 
Fletcher took Major Schuyler into his councils, and was 
guided by his opinions. " No man understood those affairs 
better than he ; and his influence over the Indians was so 
great, that whatever Quider,* as they called him, either 
recommended or disapproved, had the force of a law. This 
power over them was supported, as it had been obtained, 
by repeated offices of kindness, and his single bravery and 
activity in the defense of his country." | Through the in- 

* Quider, the Iroquois pronunciation of Peter. Having no labials in their 
language, they could not say Peter, 
f Smith's History of New York. 



120 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

fluence of Quider, therefore, Colonel Fletcher was placed 
upon the best footing with the Indians, by whom was 
conferred upon him the name of Caj^enguinago, or " The 
Great Swift Arrow," as a compliment for a remarkably 
rapid journey made by him from New York to Schenec- 
tady on a sudden emergency.* 

Despairing, at length, of accomplishing a peace with 
the Five Nations, Count Frontenac determined to strike a 
blow upon the Mohawks in their own country — which pur- 
pose was securely executed in the month of February, 
1G93. For once this vigilant race of warriors were taken 
by surprise, two of their castles being entered and cap- 
tured without much resistance — the warriors of both hav- 
ing been mostly absent at Schenectady. On assailing the 
third or upper castle, however, the invaders met with a 
different reception. The warriors within, to the number 
of forty, were engaged in a war-dance, preparatory to some 
military expedition upon which they were about entering; 
and though inferior in force, yet they yielded not without 
a struggle, nor until thirty of the assailants had been slain. 
About three hundred of the Mohawks were taken prison- 
ers in this invasion, in respect to which the people of 
Schenectady have been charged with bad conduct. They 
neither aided their neighbors, nor even apprised them of 
the approach of danger, although informed of the fact in 
due season themselves. But Quider, the fast friend of the 
Indians, took the field at the head of the militia of Albany, 
immediately on hearing of the invasion, and harassed the 
enemy sharply during their retreat. Indeed, but for the 
protection of a snow-storm, and the accidental resting of 
a cake of ice upon the river, forming a bridge for their 
escape, the invaders would have been cut off. 

Fletcher was by profession a soldier, a man of strong 

* Colden's Six Nations. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 121 

passions and inconsiderable talents ; very active, and 
equally avaricious. His administration was so energetic 
and successful the first year, that he received large sup- 
plies, and a vote of special thanks from the Assembly. He 
was a bigot, however, to the Episcopal form of church 
government, and labored hard to introduce into the prov- 
ince the English language, to encourage English churches 
and schools. On this account he was soon involved in a 
violent controversy with the Assembly, who were .at first 
inclined rather to favor the Dutch churches. But 
in 1G93 an Assembly was found who, more pliant, 
passed an act " Providing for the building of a church 
in the city of New York, in which was to be settled a 
Protestant minister" — the word Protestant being tacitly 
understood to mean Episcopal. This was the origin of 
Trinity Church,* which was forthwith begun in 
1696, and finished and opened for public worship, 
February, 1697, under the auspices of Rev. William 
Vesey. The church itself, which was a very insig- 
nificant building, resembled its present namesake 
on the same site in nothing save in having a very tall 
spire. Certainly it did not resemble the present Trinity 
in having set apart in it (as it did) a pew for the Mayor 
and Common Council, to whom a sermon was annually 
preached, on the day of the city election. 

Fletcher was succeeded by Richard, Earl of Bella- 
mont, who was appointed Governor of New York, Massa- 
chusetts, and New Hampshire, in May, 1695, but 
did not arrive in New York until May, 1698. He 
was appointed by King William with a special view to 
the suppression of piracy in the American seas — New 
York, at that time, having been a commercial depot of 

* This church was destroyed by fire in 1776, and lay in ruins until 1788, 
when it was rebuilt. In 1839 it was torn down to build the present edifice, 
which was opened in 1846. 
16 



122 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

the pirates, with whom Fletcher and other officers in the 
colony had a good understanding. Kidd was fitted out 
with a ship by Bellamont, Robert Livingstone, and others, 
including several English noblemen. Turning pirate him- 
self, Kidd was afterward arrested in Boston by the Earl, 
and sent home for trial. The Earl was a nobleman of 
polite manners, a great favorite of King William, and 

very popular among the people both of New York 

and Boston. He had been dissipated in his youth, 
but afterward became penitent and devout. He died in 
New York in March, 1701. 

On the death of Earl Bellamont, the government 
devolved upon Mr. Nanfan, the Lieutenant-Governor, 

until the appointment of Lord Cornbury in 1702. 

A public dinner was given in honor of his arrival; 
he was presented with the freedom of the city, in a gold 
box ; and a congratulatory address was tendered him by 
the city authorities. It was not long, however, before 
his true character appeared. He was a very tyrannical, 
base, and profligate man, and was appointed to the 
government of New York by King William as a reward 
for his desertion of King James, in whose army he was 
an officer. He was a savage bigot and an ungentlemanly 
tyrant He imprisoned several clergymen who were 
dissenters, and robbed the Rev. M. Hubbard, of Jamaica, 
of his house and glebe. He was wont to dress himself 
in women's clothes, and thus patrol the fort. His avarice 
was insatiable, and his disposition that of a savage. 

The only things worthy of note during his adminis- 
tration are : First, the establishment by the corporation of 
the city of a free grammar-school ; and, second, the rag- 
ing of a malignant epidemic, which strongly resembled 
the yellow-fever. The terror-stricken citizens fled to the 
shores of New Jersey and Staten Island ; and Lord 
Cornbury, with his council, took up his quarters at Ja- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 123 

maica, Long Island. But the inhabitants of New York 
had a worse plague than even the pestilence, in Corn- 
bury ; who, at length, becoming an object of uni- 
versal abhorrence and detestation, was superseded 
by Queen Anne, who, in the autumn of 1708, appointed 
John, Lord Lovelace, Baron of Hurley, in his place. 

Lovelace, however, did not long enjoy either the cares 
or pleasures of office. He died on the 5th of May in 
the next year, of a disorder contracted in crossing the 
ferry on his first arrival in New York. On the death of 
his lordship, the government once more devolved 
upon Richard Ingoldsby, the Lieutenant-Governor 
of the colony, until the arrival of Governor Hunter, in 
the summer of 1710. 

Hunter was a Scotchman, and when a boy, an ap- 
prentice to an apothecary. Leaving his master, he 
entered the army, and, being a man of wit and beauty, 
gained promotion, and also the hand of Lady Hay. In 
1707, he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, 
but being captured by the French on his voyage out, on 
his return to England he was appointed to the govern- 
ment of New York and New Jersey, then united in the 
same jurisdiction. Governor Hunter was the man who 
brought over the three thousand Palatines from Germany, 
by whom the German settlements in the interior of New 
York and Pennsylvania were founded. He administered 
the government of the colony " well and wisely," as was 
said to him in an affectionate parting address by 

1719. 

the General Assembly, until the summer of 1719, 
when he returned to England on leave of absence, as well 
on account of his health us to look after his private 
affairs. He intimated, upon his departure, that he might 
return to the government again, but did not. The chief 
command on his departure devolved on the Hon. Peter 
Schuyler, as the oldest member of the council, but only 



124 HISTORY OP NEW YORK CITY. 

for a brief period. He, however, held a treaty with the 
Six Nations at Albany, which was considered satisfactory ; 
yet it would have been more so had his efforts to induce 
the Confederates to drive Joncaire, the agent of the 
French, out of their country, been successful. This Jesuit 
emissary had resided among the Senecas from the begin- 
ning of Queen Anne's reign. He had been adopted by 
them, and was greatly beloved by the Onondagas. He 
was incessant in his intrigues in behalf of the French, 
facilitating the missionaries in their progress through the 
country, and- contributing greatly to the vacillating course 
of the Indians toward the English. Schuyler was aware 
of all this; but, notwithstanding his own great influence 
over the Six Nations, he could not prevail upon them to 
discard their favorite. In other respects the government of 
Schuyler was marked by moderation, wisdom, and integrity. 
About this period a " new market was established at 
the upper end of Broad Street, between the City Hall and 
Exchange Place, and permission was given to the resi- 
dents of the vicinity to erect stalls and sheds to suit their 
convenience, under the direction of the Clerk of the 
Market. Country people were also permitted to sell 
meat at wholesale or retail, as they pleased, subject to 
the same supervision ; and bakers were required to brand 
their loaves with their initials, under penalty of forfeit- 
ure of the bread. In the spring of the same year (1711), 
it was resolved that a meeting of the Common Council 
should be held at the City Hall on the first Friday of 
every month ; and the treasurer was also ordered to pur- 
chase eighteen rush-hottoiimd chairs and an oval table for 
their accommodation. 

In regard to the appearance of the city itself at this 

time we are not left entirely to conjecture. In the 

month of October 1704, Miss Sarah Knight, a 

Boston lady of considerable shrewdness and observa- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 125 

tion, and who was connected with some of the old New- 
England families, traveled on horseback from Boston to 
New York, on a visit to some of her friends. During her 
journey she kept a journal, in which she jotted down her 
experiences of men and things noted by the way. This 
journal, which has recently been printed for private cir- 
culation, contains the following quaint passage, descriptive 
of the city at this period : 

" The Citie of New York is a pleasant well compacted place, situated on a 
commodious River, well is a fine harbour for shipping. The Building Brick 
Generaly very stately and high, though not altogether like ours in Boston. 
The Bricks in some of the Houses are of divers Coullers and laid in Checkers, 
being glazed, look very agreeable. The inside of them are neat to admira- 
tion, the wooden work, for only the walls are plastered, and the Sumers and 
Gist * are plained and kept very white scowr'd as so is all the partitions made 
of Bords. The fire-places have no Jambs (as ours have) But the Backs run 
flush with the walls, and the Hearth is of Tyles and is as farr out into the 
Room at the Ends as before the fire, wch is Generally Five foot in the Low'r 
rooms, and the peice over where the mantle tree should be is made as ours 
with Joyners work, and as I suppose is fasten'd to iron rodds inside. The 
House where the Vendue was, had Chimney Corners like ours, and they and 
the Hearth were laid wth the finest tile that I ever see, and the stair cases 
laid all with white tile which is ever clean,f and so are the walls of the 
Kitchen, wheh had a Brick floor. They were making Great preparations to 
Receive their Governor, Lord Cornbury from the Jerseys, and for that End 
raised the militia to Gard him on shore to the fort. \ 

" They are Generaly of the Church of England and have a New-England 
Gentleman § for their Minister, and a wry fine church set out with all Cus- 
tomary requisites. There are also a Dutch || and Divers Conventicles, as they 

* Summers and joist. The Summer, a word now not in very common use, was a central 
beam supporting the joist, such as is now sometimes called the bearing beam. 

t The tiles were set into the wall, forming, as it were, a continuous border or row of the 
width of one tile (or perhaps sometimes of more) close to the upper line of staircase. The 
Coeymans house, standing on the bank of the Hudson, just north of the village of Coey- 
mans, still shows most of these peculiarities of building mentioned by Mme. Knight; the 
staircase laid with tiles, no plaster except on the walls, and heavy floor-timbers, strengthened 
at the ends by solid knees, planed and " keptvery white scoured." 

X On the block beween Bowling Green, Whitehall, Bridge, and State Streets.— Valentine's 
History of New York, 28. 

§ William Vesey. previously "a dissenting preacher on Long Island He had received 
his education in Harvard under that rigid Independent. Increase Mather, and was sent 
thence by him to confirm the minds of those who had removed for their convenience from 
New England to this Province. * * * But Col. Fletcher, who saw into his design, took 
off Mr. Vesey by an invitation to this living: * * * and Mr. Vesey returned from Eng- 
land in Priest's orders."— Documentary History of New York, III, 438. 

II The Reformed Dutch Church, built in 1693. in what is now Exchange Place.— Greenleaf's 
History nf N. Y. Churches, 11. 



12(1 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

call them, viz. : Baptist,* Quakers/)- &c. They are not strict in keeping the 
Sabbath as in Boston and other places where I had bin, But seem to deal with 
great exactness as farr as I see or Deall with. They are sociable to one 
another and Curteos and Civill to strangers and fare well in their houses. The 
English go very fashernable in their Dress. But the Dutch, especially the 
middling sort, differ from our women, in ther habitt go loose, were French 
muches wch are like a Capp and a head band in one, leaving their ears bare, 
which are sett out wth Jewells of a large size and many in number. And their 
fingers hoop't with rings, some with large stones in them of many Coullers as 
were their pendants in their ears, which You should see very old womens wear 
as well as Young. 

" They have Vendues very frequently, and make their earnings very well by 
them, for they treat with good Liquor Liberally, and the customers Drink as 
Liberally, and Generally pay for't as well, by paying for that which they Bidd 
up Briskly for, after the sack has gone plentifully about, tho' sometimes good 
penny worths are got there. Their Diversions in the Winter is Riding Sleys 
about three or four Miles out of Town, where they have Houses of entertain- 
ment at a place called the Bowery, \ and some go to friends' Houses, who 
handsomely treat them. Mr. Burroughs carry'd his spouse and Daughter 
and myself out to one Madame Dowes, a Gentlewoman that lived at a farm 
House, who gave us a handsome entertainment of five or six Dishes and choice 
Beer and metheglin, Cyder, &c, all which she said was the produce of her 
farm. I believe we mett fifty or sixty slays that day ; they fly with great 
swiftness, and some are so furious that they'll turn out of the path for none 
except a Loaden Cart. Nor do they spare for any diversion the place affords 
and sociable to a degree, they'r Tables being as free to their Naybours as t( 
themselves." 

William Burnet, son of the celebrated prelate of that 

name, who nourished in the reign of William and Mary, 

succeeded Hunter in the government of the colony, in 

the year 1720 ; and of all the colonial Governors 

IT20. 

of New York, with the exception of Colonel Don- 
gan, his Indian and colonial policy was marked by the 
most prudent forecast and the greatest wisdom. Imme- 
diately after the peace of Utrecht a brisk trade in goods 
for the Indian market was revived between Albany and 

* Greenleaf, however, gives 1799 as the first Baptist preaching— that of Wickenden. A 
petition of Nicholas Eyres slates that in 1715 his house was registered for an Anabaptist 
meeting-house.— Documentary History of New York, III, 480. 

t The first Friends' Meeting-house— a small frame building, standing on Little Green 
Street— is said to have been erected in 1696 or 1705.— GreenleaJ ', 116. 

% "A small tavern stood on the banks of the Harlem River. This tavern was the occa- 
sional point of excursion for riding parties from the city, and was known as the 'Wedding- 
place.' One or two small taverns were on the road between the town and the Bowery."— 
Valentine's History of New York, 69. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 127 

Montreal, the Caughnawaga tribe of the Mohawks resid- 
ing near Montreal serving as carriers. The chiefs of the 
Six Nations foresaw the evil and inevitable consequences 
to result from allowing that trade to pass round in that 
direction, inasmuch as the Indians would of course be 
drawn exclusively to Montreal for their supplies, to be 
received immediately at the hands of the French, and 
they cautioned the English authorities against it. Mr. 
Hunter had indeed called the attention of the General 
Assembly to the subject at an antecedent period ; but no 
action was had thereon until after Mr. Burnet had as- 
sumed the direction of the colonial administration. The 
policy of the latter was at once to cut off an intercourse so 
unwise and dangerous with Montreal, and bring the entire 
Indian trade within the limits and control of New York. 
To this end an act was passed, at his suggestion, subjecting 
the traders with Montreal to a forfeiture of their goods, 
and a penalty of one hundred pounds for each infraction 
of the law. It likewise entered into the policy of Mr. 
Burnet to win the confidence of the Caughnawagas, and 
reunite them with their kindred in their native valley. 
But the ties by which the Roman priesthood had bound 
them to the interests of the French were too strong, and 
the efforts of the Governor were unsuccessful. 

In furtherance of the design to grasp the Indian trade, 
not only of the Six Nations, but likewise that of the re- 
moter nations of the upper lakes, a trading-post was 
established at Oswego in 1722. A trusty agent was 
also appointed to reside at the great council-fire of 
the Onondagas, the central nation of the Confederates. 
A congress of several of the colonies was held at Albany 
to meet the Six Nations, during the same year, which, 
among other distinguished men, was attended by Gov- 
ernor Spottswood, of Virginia, Sir William Keith, of Penn- 
sylvania, and by Governor Burnet. At this council the 



128 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

chiefs stipulated that in their Southern war expeditions 
they would not cross the Potomac; and in their marches 
against their Southern enemies, their path was to lie 
westward of the great mountains, meaning the Allegha- 
nies. Mr. Burnet again brightened the chain of friend- 
ship with them on the part of New York, notwithstand- 
ing the adverse influences exerted by the Chevalier Jon- 
caire, the Jesuit agent residing alternately among the 
Senecas and Onondagas. 

The beneficial effects of Mr. Burnet's policy were soon 
apparent. In the course of a single year more than forty 
young men plunged boldly into the Indian country as 
traders, acquired their language, and strengthened the 
precarious friendship existing between the English and 
the more distant nations ; while tribes of the latter pre- 
viously unknown to the colonists, even from beyond the 
Michiliinackinac, visited Albany for purposes of tralfic. 

The establishment of an English post at Oswego was 
a cause of high displeasure to the French, who, in order 
to intercept the trade from the upper lakes that would 
otherwise be drawn thither, and thus be diverted from 
Montreal, determined to repossess themselves of Niagara, 
rebuild the trading-house at that point, and repair their 
dilapidated fort. The assent of the Onondagas to this meas- 
ure was obtained by the Baron de Longueil, who visited 
their country for that purpose, through the influence of 
Joncaire and his Jesuit associates. But the other mem- 
bers of the Confederacy, disapproving of the movement, 
declared the permission given to be void, and dispatched 
messengers to Niagara to arrest the procedure. With a 
just appreciation of the importance of such an encroach- 
ment upon their territory, the Confederates met Mr. 
Burnet in council upon the subject at Albany 
in 1727. " We come to you howling," said the 
chiefs ; " and this is the reason why we howl, that the 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 129 

Governor of Canada encroaches upon our land and builds 
thereon." Governor Burnet made them a speech on the 
occasion, beautifully expressed in their own figurative 
language, which gave them great satisfaction.* The 
chiefs, declaring themselves unable to resist this invasion 
of the French, entreated the English for succor, and for- 
mally surrendered their country to the great king, " to be 
protected by him for their use," as heretofore stated. 
But Governor Burnet, being at that period involved in 
political difficulties with an Assembly too short-sighted 
or too factious to appreciate the importance of preserv- 
ing so able a head to the colonial government, was 
enabled to do nothing more for the protection of the In- 
dians than to erect a small military defense at Oswego ; 
and even this work of necessity he was obliged to per- 
form at his own private expense. Meantime the French 
completed and secured their works at Niagara without 
molestation. 

In the course of the same year, having been thwarted 
in his enlarged and patriotic views by several successive 
assemblies, Mr. Burnet, one of the ablest and wisest of the 
colonial administrators, retired from the government of 
New York, and accepted that of Massachusetts and New 
Hampshire. His departure, personally, was universally 
regretted. He was not only a man of letters, but of wit — 
a believer in the Christian religion, yet not a serious pro- 
fessor. A variety of amusing anecdotes has been related 
of him. When on his way from New York to assume the 
government at Boston, one of the committee who went 
from that town to meet him on the borders of Rhode 
Island was the facetious Colonel Tailer. Burnet com- 
plained of the long graces that were said before meals by 
clergymen on the road, and asked when they would 

* Smith's History of New York. 
17 



130 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

shorten. Tailer answered : " The graces will increase in 
length till you come to Boston ; after that they will 
shorten till you come to your government of New Hamp- 
shire, where your excellency will find no grace at all." 

Colonel John Montgomery succeeded Mr. Burnet in the 

government of the colonies of New York and New Jersey 

in the month of April, 1728. He was a Scotchman, 

1728. 

and bred a soldier. But quitting the profession of 
arms, he went into Parliament, serving, also, for a time, 
as groom of the bed-chamber to his majesty George II, 
before his accession to the throne. He was a man of 
moderate abilities and slender literary attainments. He 
was too good-natured a man to excite enmities; and his 
administration was one of tranquil inaction. He was an 
indolent man, and had not character enough to inspire 
opposition. 

The French, perceiving this, and enraged at the erec- 
tion of a fort at Oswego, were now menacing that post. 
The new Governor thereupon met the Six Nations in 
council at Albany, to renew the covenant chain, and en- 
gage them in the defense of that important station. 
Large presents were distributed among them, and they 
declared their willingness to join the reinforcements 
detached from the independent companies for that service. 
Being apprised of these preparations, the French desisted 
from their threatened invasion. 

Much of the opposition to the administration of Gov- 
ernor Burnet had been fomented and kept alive by the 
Albanians, who, by the shrewdness of his Indian policy, 
and the vigorous measures by which he had enforced it, 
had been interrupted in their illicit trade in Indian goods 
with Montreal, and also by the importers of those goods 
residing in the city of New York. Sustained, however, 
by his council-board, and by the very able memoir of 
Dr. Colden upon that subject, Mr. Burnet, as the reader 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 13] 

has already been apprised, had succeeded in giving a new 
and more advantageous character to the inland trade, 
while the Indian relations of the colony had been placed 
upon a better footing, in so far, at least, as the opportuni- 
ties of the French to tamper with them had been measur- 
ably cut off. But in December of the succeeding year, 
owing to some intrigues that w^ere never .clearly under- 
stood, all these advantages were suddenly relinquished by 
an act of the Crown repealing the measures of Mr. Bur- 
net ; reviving, in effect, the execrable trade of the Alba- 
nians, and thus at once re-opening the door of intrigue 
between the French and the Six Nations, which had been 
so wisely closed. 

The three principal events, however, of Montgbmery's 
administration affecting the city itself, were the grant of 
an amended city charter in 1730, by which the 

1730. 

jurisdiction of the city was fixed to begin at 
King's Bridge, the establishment of a line of stages to run 
between New York and Philadelphia once a fortnight 
during the winter months, and the founding of the first 
public library. 

For more than a century there had been no public 
library in the city ; but in the year 1729 some sixteen 
hundred and twenty-two volumes were bequeathed by the 
Rev. John Millington, rector of Newington, England, to 
the " Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel 
in Foreign Parts," by whom the books were in turn imme- 
diately presented to the city. To this number also was 
added another collection, the gift of the Rev. John Sharp, 
chaplain to Lord Bellamont, when both collections, now one, 
were opened to the public as the u Corporation Library," 
The librarian dying soon after, the books were neglected 
until 1754, when a few public-spirited citizens founded 
the Society Library, at the same time adding the Corpo- 
ration collection and depositing the whole in the City 



132 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Hall. The undertaking prospered, and in 1772 George III 
granted it a charter. During the Revolutionary struggle 
the library was neglected ; but when peace was restored 
in 1783, the society revived their charter and again set 
themselves to work collecting those volumes that had been 
scattered and replacing those irretrievably lost by new 
ones. Their efforts were so far successful as to warrant 
them in erecting a library building on Nassau Street, 
opposite the Dutch church, a building that for a long time 
was considered one of the finest specimens of architecture 
of which the city could boast. Thence it was removed to 
the Mechanics' Society building on Chambers Street, where 
it remained until the completion of their new and fine 
edifice in 1840 on the corner of Broadway and Leonard 
Street. This spot was next vacated and quarters were 
obtained for it in the new Bible House, Astor Place, 
whence, in 1857, it once more removed to its beautiful 
edifice in University Place, between Twelfth and Thir- 
teenth Streets. Such is a short sketch of the first public 
library of New York, commenced one hundred and thirty- 
nine years ago. 

On the decease of Colonel Montgomery, in 1731, the 

duties of the colonial executive were for a brief period 

exercised by Mr. Rip Van Dam, as President of 

173 1« • .... 

the Council.* His administration was signalized 
by the memorable infraction of the treaty of Utrecht by 
the French, who then invaded the clearly-defined territory 
of New York, and built the fortress of St. Frederick, at 
Crown Point, a work which gave them the command of 
Lake Champlain — the highway between the English and 
French colonies. The pusillanimity evinced by the gov- 
ernment of New York on the occasion of that flagrant 

* Mr. Van Dam was an eminent merchant in the city of New York, " of a 
fair estate," says Smith, the historian, " though distinguished more for the in- 
tegrity of his heart than his capacity to hold the reins of government." 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 133 

encroachment upon its domains, excites the amazement 
of the retrospective reviewer. Massachusetts, alarmed at 
this advance of the rivals, if not natural enemies, of the 
English upon the settlement of the latter, first called the 
attention of the authorities of New York to the subject ; 
but the information was received with the most provoking 
indifference. There was a regular military force in the 
colony abundantly sufficient, by a prompt movement, to 
repel the aggression, yet not even a remonstrance was 
uttered against it. With the exception of this infringe- 
ment upon the territory of New York, nothing 
worthy of special mention occurred during the ad- 
ministration of Mr. Van Dam. In August, 1732, Colonel 
William Cosby arrived in New York as his successor. 
The first act of the new Governor was one which, 
having its rise at first in a mere personal quarrel, was des- 
tined to establish, for all time in America, the question of 
the liberty of the press. The act of the Governor here 
alluded to was the institution of proceedings against Rip 
Van Dam to recover half of the salary which the latter 
had received during his occupation of the Governor's 
chair. The suit was decided against Van Dam, who was 
consequently suspended from the exercise of his functions 
as President of the Council. This unfair decision natu- 
rally aroused the indignation of the people, who gave vent 
to their feelings in squibs and lampoons hurled without 
mercy at the Governor and his party. These were, in 
turn, answered by the Nezv York Gazette, a paper published 
by William Bradford in the interest of the Government ; 
and the controversy finally grew so bitter that John Peter 
Zenger, a printer by trade, was induced, under the patron- 
age, as was supposed, of Rip Van Dam, to start a new 
paper, the New York Weekly Journal — the columns of which 
were to be devoted to opposing the colonial administration 
of Governor Cosby. The columns of the new paper teemed 



134 HISTORY OF NEW YOEK CITY. 

with able and spicy articles assailing the acts of the Gov- 
ernor — written, probably, by William Smith and James 
Alexander, the two prominent lawyers of New York. The 
Governor, and those members of his council who were his 
satellites, were not long in bringing themselves into the 
belief that these articles were actionable ; and thus it hap- 
pened that the first great libel suit tried in this city was insti- 
tuted by the Government, in 1734, against Zenger. 

1734. • 

The latter, in a pamphlet which he wrote afterward 
upon his trial, quaintly says : * "As there was but one 
Printer in the Province of New York that printed a public 
News Paper, I was in Hopes, if I undertook to publish an- 
other, I might make it worth my while, and I soon found 
that my Hopes were not groundless. My first paper was 
printed November 15th, 1733, and I continued printing 
and publishing of them (I thought to the satisfaction of 
every body) till the January following, when the Chief 
Justice was pleased to animadvert upon the Doctrine of 
Libels in a long charge given in that term to the Grand 
Jury;" 

Zenger was thereupon imprisoned on Sunday, the 17th 
of November, 1734, by virtue of a warrant from the Gov- 
ernor and Council; and a concurrence of the House of 
Representatives in the prosecution was requested. The 
House, however, declined by laying the request of the 
Council upon the table. The Governor and Council then 
ordered the libelous papers to be burned by the common 
hangman or whipper, near the pillory. But both the com- 
mon whipper and the common hangman were officers of 
the Corporation, not of the Crown, and they declined, 
officiating at the illumination. The papers were therefore 

* This pamphlet, which is excedingly rare, is a large 8vo (5^ xi)i£ inches) 
of 39 pages. It is entitled : A Brief Narrative of the Case and Trial of John 
Peter Zenger, Printer of the New York Weekly Journal :—New York Printed : 
Lancaster re-printed, and sold by W. Dunlap, at the New Printing Offices, Queen 
Street, 1736. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 135 

burned by the Sheriff's negro servant at the order of the 
Governor.* An ineffectual attempt was next made to 
procure an indictment against Zenger, but the Grand Jury 
refused to find a bill. The Attorney-General was then 
directed to file no information against him for printing the 
libels, and he was consequently kept in prison until 
another term. His counsel offered exceptions to the com- 
missions of the judges, which the latter not only refused 
to hear, but excluded his counsel, Messrs. Smith and Alex- 
ander, from the bar. Zenger then obtained other counsel 
— John Chambers of New York, and Andrew Hamilton 
of Philadelphia. The trial at length came on and excited 
great interest. The truth, under the old English law of 
libel, could never be given in evidence, and was of course 
excluded on the present trial. Hamilton, nevertheless, 
tried the case with consummate ability. He showed the 
jury that they were the judges as well of the law as the 
fact, and Zenger was acquitted. " The jury," says Zenger 
in relating the result of the trial, " withdrew, and in a 
small time returned, and being asked by the clerk whether 
they were agreed upon their verdict and whether John 

* In the pamphlet before alluded to, Zenger gives the following account of 
this proceeding: 

" At a council held at Fort George in New York the 2d of November, 17;J4, 
present, His Excellency William Cosby, Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief , 
&c, ...r. Clark, Mr. Harrison, Dr. Colden" [a note says Dr. Colden was that day 
at Esopus, ninety miles away], "Mr. Livingston, Mr. Kennedy, the Chief Jus- 
tice, Mr. Cortlandt, Mr. Lane, Mr. Horsmanden : 

" Whereas, By an order of the Board of this day, some of John Peter Zen- 
ger's journals, entitled the New York Weekly Journal, Nos. 7, 47, 48, 49, were 
ordered to be burned by the hands of the common hangman or whipper, near 
the pillory of this city, on Wednesday, the 6th inst., between the hours of eleven 
and twelve. It is therefore ordered that the Mayor and Magistrates of this city 
do attend at the burning of the several papers or journals aforesaid, numbered 
as above-mentioned. . Fred. Mokkis, D. CI. Con. 

" To RoBERT.LuitTiNG, Esq., Mayor of the City of New York, &c." 

(The Aldermen protested vigorously against the execution of this order, 
and refused to instruct the Sheriff to execute it. The Sheriff burned the papers, 
however, or " delivered them into the hands of his own negro, and ordered him 
to put them into the fire, which he did.") 



136 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Peter Zenger was guilty of printing and publishing the 
libels in the information mentioned, they answered by 
Thomas Hunt, their foreman, not guilty, upon which 
there were three huzzas in the hall, which was crowded 
with people, and the next day I was discharged from 
imprisonment." 

Immediately after the trial the Corporation voted the 
freedom of the city in a magnificent gold box * to Andrew 
Hamilton, " for the remarkable service done to this city 
and colony, by his defense of the rights of mankind and 
the liberty of the press." 

Twenty years afterward, however, the Government 
organ itself fell under the displeasure of the reigning 
powers. Upon the relinquishment of his paper in 1743, 
it was resumed by James Parker under the double title of 
the New York Gazette and Weekly Post Boy. In 1753, ten 
years afterward, Parker took a partner by the name of 
William Way man. But neither of the partners, nor both 
of them together, possessed the indomitable spirit of John 
Peter Zenger. Having in March, 1756, published an 
article reflecting upon the people of Ulster and Orange 
counties, the Assembly, entertaining a high regard for 
the majesty of the people, took offense thereat, and both 
the editors were taken into custody by the sergeant-at- 
arms. What the precise nature of the insult upon the 
sovereign people of those counties was, does not appear. 
But the editors behaved in a craven manner. They ac- 
knowledged their fault, begged pardon of the House, and 
paid the costs of the proceedings, in addition to all which 

* This gold box was five ounces and a half in weight and inclosed the seal 
of the said Freedom. On its lid were engraved the arms of the City of New 
York and these mottoes : On the outer part of the lid, Demers^e Leges — 
Timefacta Libertas — H^c Tandem Emergunt. On the inner side of the 
lid, Nun Noishs — Virtute Paratur. On the front of the rim, Ita Cuique 
Eveniat ut de Republica Meruit. "Which freedom and box," naively 
adds Zenger, " was presented in the manner that had been directed, and grate- 
fully accepted by the said Andrew Hamilton, Esquire." 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 137 

they gave up the name of the author. He proved to be 
none other than the Rev. Hezekiah Watkins, a missionary 
to the County of Ulster, residing at Newburg. The 
reverend gentleman was accordingly arrested, brought to 
New York, and voted guilty of a high misdemeanor and 
contempt of the authority of the House. Of what per- 
suasion was this Mr. Watkins does not appear. But 
neither Luther, nor Calvin, nor Hugh Latimer would have 
betrayed the right of free discussion as he did by begging 
the pardon of the House, standing to receive a reprimand, 
paying the fees, and promising to be more circumspect in 
future — for the purpose of obtaining his discharge. This 
case affords the most singular instance of the exercise of 
the doubtful power of punishing for what are called con- 
tempts on record. A court has unquestionably a right 
to protect itself from indignity while in session, and so 
has a legislative body, although the power of punishing 
for such an offense without trial by jury is now gravely 
questioned. But for a legislative body to extend the 
mantle of its protection over its constituency in such a 
matter is an exercise of power of which, even in the 
annals of the Star Chamber, when presided over by 
Archbishop Laud, it is difficult to find a parallel. Sure it 
is that a people, then or now, who would elect such mem- 
bers to the Legislature deserve nothing else than con- 
tempt. From the establishment, however, of the inde- 
pendence of the country until the present day there has 
been no attempt to fetter the press by censors or by law ; 
while the old English law of libel, which prevailed until 
the beginning of the present century, has been so modi- 
fied as to allow the truth in all cases to be given in 
evidence. For the attainment of this great end the 
country is indebted, more than to all other men, to the 
early and bosom friend of the late venerable Dr. Nott — 
Alexander Hamilton. 

18 



138 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

At length the incessant quarrels of the weak and 
avaricious Cosby with the people and their representa- 
tives was suddenly terminated bv his death in 

1736 

March, 1736. On his decease, Mr. George Clarke, 
long a member of the Council, after a brief struggle 
with Mr. Van Dam for the presidency, succeeded to the 
direction of the government, and, being shortly after- 
ward commissioned as Lieutenant-Governor, continued at 
the head of the colonial administration from the autumn 
of 1736 to that of 1743. Mr. Clarke was remotely 
connected by marriage with the family of Lord 
Clarendon, having been sent over as Secretary of the 
colony in the reign of Queen Anne. Being, moreover, a 
man of strong common sense and of uncommon tact, and, 
by reason of his long residence in the colony and the 
several official stations he had held, well acquainted with 
its affairs, his administration — certainly until toward its 
close — was comparatively popular, and, all circumstances 
considered, eminently successful. In the brief struggle 
for power between himself and Mr. Van Dam, the latter 
had been sustained by the popular party, while the 
officers of the Crown and the partisans of Cosby, with 
few, if any, exceptions, adhered to Mr. Clarke. This 
difficulty, however, had been speedily ended by a royal 
confirmation of the somewhat doubtful authority assumed 
by Mr. Clarke. His own course, moreover, on taking 
the seals of office, was conciliatory. In his first speech 
to the General Assembly, he referred in temperate lan- 
guage to the unhappy divisions which had of late dis- 
turbed the colony, and which he thought it was then a 
favorable moment to heal. The English flour -market 
having been overstocked by large supplies furnished from 
the other colonies, the attention of the Assembly was 
directed to the expediency of encouraging domestic man- 
ufactures in various departments of industry. To the 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 139 

Indian affairs of the colony Mr. Clarke invited the spe- 
cial attention of the Assembly. The military works of 
Fort Hunter being in a dilapidated condition, and the 
object of affording protection to the Christian settlements 
through the Mohawk Valley having been accomplished, 
the Lieutenant-Governor suggested the erection of a new 
fort at the carrying-place between the Mohawk River 
and Wood Creek* leading into the Oneida Lake, and 
thence through the Oswego River into Lake Ontario; 
and the transfer of the garrison from Fort Hunter to this 
new and commanding position. He likewise recommended 
the repairing of the block-house at Oswego, and the send- 
ing of smiths and other artificers. into the Indian country, 
especially among the Senecas.t 

During the greater part of the year 1738— if we ex- 
cept the establishing of a quarantine on Bedloe's Island 
and the opening of Rector Street— but little at- ^ 
tention was paid to local affairs, the principal 
historical in cident of that year being the memorable con- 

* The site, afterward, of Fort Stanwix, now the opulent town of Rome. 

+ In the course of this Session of the General Assembly, Chief Justice De 
Lancey Speaker of the Legislative Council, announced that his duties in the 
Supreme Court would render it impossible for him to act as Speaker through 
the session. It was therefore ordered that the oldest Councilor present 
should thenceforward act as Speaker. Under this order, Dr. Colden first 

came to the chair. , . 

On the 26th of October, the Council resolved that they would hold their 
sittings in the Common Council chamber of the City Hall. The House imme- 
diately returned a message that they were holding their sessions, and should 
continue to hold them, in that chamber ; and that it was conformable to the 
constitution that the Council, in its legislative capacity, should sit as a distinct 
and separate body. During the same session, also, the Council having sent a 
message to the House by the hand of a deputy-clerk, a message was trans- 
nutted back, signifying that the House considered such a course disrespectful. 
Until that time messages had been conveyed between the Houses with bills, 
resolutions, &c, by the hands of their members respectively. The House 
considered the sending of a clerk an innovation upon their privileges ; and 
Colonel Phillipse, Mr. Verplank, and Mr. Johnson were appointed a committee 
to wait upon the Council and demand satisfaction. The Council healed the 
matter by a conciliatory resolution, declaring that no disrespect had been 
intended. 



140 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

tested election between Adolphe Phillipse and Gerrit Van 
Horne, in connection with which, owing to the extraor- 
dinary skill and eloquence of Mr. Smith, father of the 
historian and counsel for Van Home, the Hebrew free- 
holders of the City of New York, from which place both 
parties claimed to have been returned to the Assembly, 
were most unjustly disfranchised, on the ground of their 
religious creed, and their votes rejected. The colony 
was greatly excited by this question, and the persuasive 
powers exerted by Mr. Smith are represented to have 
been wonderful — equaling, probably, if not surpassing, 
those of Andrew Hamilton, four years previously, in the 
great libel case of Zenger — and possibly not excelled 
even by Patrick Henry a few years afterward, when 
he dethroned the reason of the court, and led captive 
the jury, in the great tobacco case in Virginia. 



CHAPTER III. 

The years 1738 and 1739, were marked by increasing 
political excitement; and the dividing line of parties, in- 
volving the great principles of civil liberty on the 1738. 
one side and the prerogatives of the Crown on the "39. 
other, were more distinctly drawn, perhaps, than at any 
antecedent period. The administrations of the earlier 
English Governors, Nicholls and Lovelace, were benevolent 
and almost parental. Andros, it is true, was a tyrant ; 
and during his administration parties were formed, as in 
England, upon the mixed questions of politics and religion, 
which dethroned the last and most bigoted of the Stuarts, 
and brought William and Mary upon the throne. Dongan, 
however, the last of the Stuart Governors in New York, 
although a Roman Catholic, was nevertheless mild in the 
administration of the government, and a gentleman in his 
feelings and manners. It was upon his arrival, in the 
autumn of 1683, that the freeholders of the colony, as we 
have seen, were invested with the right of choosing repre- 
sentatives to meet the Governor in General Assembly. 
For nearly twenty years subsequent to the revolution of 
1G89, the colony was torn by personal, rather than politi- 
cal, factions, having their origin in the controversy which 
compassed the judicial murder of the unhappy Leisler and 
his son-in-law, Milburn. These factions dying out in the 
lapse of years, other questions arose, the principal of which 



142 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

was that important one which always, sooner or later, 
springs up in every English colony — involving, on the one 
hand, as I have already remarked, the rights of the peo- 
ple, and on the other the claims of the Crown. Invaria- 
bly, almost, if not quite, the struggle is originated upon 
some questions of revenue — either in the levying thereof, 
or in its disposition, or both. Thus in the origin of those 
political parties in New York, which continued with 
greater or less acrimony until the separation from the 
parent country, Sloughter and Fletcher had both endeav- 
ored to obtain grants of revenue to the Crown for life, but- 
had failed. Subsequently, grants had been occasionally 
made to the officers of the Crown for a term of years ; but 
latterly, especially during the administration of Governor 
Cosby, the General Assembly had grown more refractory 
upon the subject — pertinaciously insisting that they would 
vote the salaries for the officers of the Crown only with 
the annual supplies. This was a principle which the Gov- 
ernors, as the representatives of the Crown, felt bound to 
resist, as being an infringement of the royal prerogative. 
Henceforward, therefore, until the colony cast off its alle- 
giance, the struggle in regard to the revenue and its dis- 
position was almost perpetually before the people, in one 
form or another ; and in some years, owing to the obsti- 
nacy of the representatives of the Crown on one side, and 
the inflexibility of the representatives of the people on 
the other, supplies were not granted at all. Mr. Clarke, 
although he had the address to throw off, or to evade, the 
difficulty, for the space of two years, was nevertheless 
doomed soon to encounter it. Accordingly, in his speech 
to the Assembly at the autumnal session of 1738, he 
complained that another year had elapsed without any 
provision being made for the support of his Majesty's gov- 
ernment in the province — the neglect having occurred 
by reason of "a practice not warranted by the usage of 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 143 

any former General Assemblies." He therefore insisted 
strongly upon the adoption of measures for the payment 
of salaries, for the payment of public creditors, and for the 
general security of the public credit by the creation of a 
sinking-fund for the redemption of the bills of the colony. 

The Assembly was refractory. Instead of complying 
with the demands of the Lieutenant-Governor, the House 
resolved unanimously that they would grant no supplies 
upon that principle ; and in regard to a sinking-fund for 
the redemption of the bills of credit afloat, they refused 
any other measure than a continuance of the existing 
excise. These spirited and peremptory resolutions gave 
high offense to the representative of the Crown ; and on 
the day following their adoption, the Assembly was sum- 
moned to the fort, and dissolved by a speech, declaring the 
said resolutions " to be such presumptuous, daring, and 
unprecedented steps that he could not look upon them but 
with astonishment, nor could he with honor suffer their 
authors to sit any longer." 

The temper of the new Assembly, summoned in the 
spring of the succeeding year, 1739, was no more in uni- 
son with the desires of the Lieutenant-Governor than that 
of the former. The demand for a permanent supply-bill 
was urged at. several successive sessions, only to be met 
with obstinate refusals. The second session, held in the 
autumn, was interrupted in October by a prorogation of 
several days, for the express purpose of affording the 
members leisure " to reflect seriously " upon the line of 
duty required of them by the exigencies of the country ; 
for, not only was the Assembly resolutely persisting in the 
determination to make only annual grants of supplies, but 
they were preparing to trench yet further upon the royal 
prerogative by insisting upon specific applications of the 
revenue, to be inserted in the bill itself. Meantime, on 
the 13th of October, the Lieutenant-Governor brought the 



144 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

subject of his differences with the Assembly formally 
before his privy council. In regard to the new popular 
movement of this Assembly, insisting upon a particular 
application of the revenues to be granted in the body of 
the act for the support of the Government, the Lieutenant- 
Governor said they had been moved to that determination 
by the example of New Jersey, where an act of that nature 
had lately been passed. He was unwilling to allow any 
encroachment upon the rights of the Crown. Yet, in con- 
sideration of the defenseless situation of the colony, he felt 
uneasy at such a turn of affairs, and not being disposed to 
revive old animosities, or to create new ones by another 
summary dissolution, he asked the advice of the council. 
The subject was referred to a committee, of which the 
Hon. Daniel Horsmanden, an old member of the council, 
was chairman. This gentleman was one of the most 
sturdy supporters of the royal prerogative ; but, in conse- 
quence of the existing posture of affairs, and the necessity 
of a speedy provision for the public safety, the committee 
reported unanimously against a dissolution. They be- 
lieved, also, that the Assembly, and the people whom they 
represented, had the disputed point so much at heart that 
it would be impossible to do business with them unless it 
was conceded ; and, besides, it was argued, should a disso- 
lution take place, there was no reason for supposing that 
the next Assembly would be less tenacious in asserting 
the offensive principle. Since, moreover, the Governor of 
New Jersey had yielded the point, the committee advised 
the same course in New York.* The point was conceded ; 

* See the old minutes of the executive or privy council, in manuscript, in 
the Secretary-of-State's office in Albany. To avoid confusion hereafter, it may 
be well to state, in this connection, that the council acted in a twofold capacity : 
first, as advisory ; second, as legislative. " In the first," says Smith, in his 
chapter entitled Political State, " they are a privy council to the Governor." 
When thus acting they are often called the executive or majesty's council. 
Hence, privy council and executive council are synonymous. During the see 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 145 

and the effect, for the moment, was to produce a better 
state of feeling in the Assembly. Supplies were granted, 
but only for the year ; and various appropriations were 
made for placing the city and colony in a posture of 
defense. 

But it is seldom that the wheels of revolution roll 
backward, and the concession which allowed the General 
Assembly to prescribe the application or disposition of 
the supplies they voted, ever before claimed as the legal 
and known prerogative of the Crown, appeased the popu- 
lar party only for a very short time. Indeed, nothing is 
more certain, whether in monarchies or republics, than 
that the governed are never satisfied with concessions, 
while each successful demand only increases the popular 
clamor for more. Thus it was in the experience of Mr. 
Clarke. It is true, indeed, that the year 1740 passed 
without any direct collision upon the question of 
prerogative ; although at the second short session of that 
year, the speech alleged the entire exhaustion of the rev- 
enue, and again demanded an ample appropriation for a 
term of years. But the controversy was re-opened at the 
spring session of the following year — 1741 — on 
which occasion the Lieutenant-Governor delivered 
a speech, long beyond precedent, and enumerating the 
grievances of the Crown by reason of the continued en- 
croachments of the General Assembly. The speech began 
by an elaborate review of the origin and progress of the 
difficulties that had existed between the representatives 
of the Crown and the Assembly, in respect to the grant- 
ting of supplies, evincing — such, indeed, is the inference 

sion of the legislature, however, the same cotincil sat (without the presence of 
the Governor) as a legislative council ; and in such capacity exercised the same 
functions as the Senate of the present day — so far as regards the passing of 
laws. The journals of this last or legislative council have recently been pub- 
lished by the State of New York under admirable editorship and the supervis- 
ion of Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan. 
19 



146 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 

— a want of gratitude on the part of the latter, in view 
of the blessings which the colony had enjoyed under the 
paternal care of the Government since the revolution of 
1688. But it was not in connection with the supplies 
only that the Assembly had invaded the rights of the 
Crown. It was the undoubted prerogative of the Crown 
to appoint the Treasurer. Yet the Assembly had de- 
manded the election of that officer. Not satisfied with 
that concession, they had next claimed the right of choos- 
ing the Auditor-General. Failing in that demand, they 
had sought to accomplish their object by withholding the 
salary from that officer. These encroachments, he said, 
had been gradually increasing from year to year, until 
apprehensions had been seriously awakened in England 
" that the plantations are not without thoughts of throw- 
ing off their dependence on the Crown." He, therefore, 
admonished the Assembly to do away with such an im- 
pression " by giving to his Majesty such a revenue, and 
in such a manner, as will enable him to pay his own 
officers and servants," as had been done from the Revolu- 
tion down to the year 1709 — during which period the 
colony was far less able to bear the burden than now.* 

Thus early and deeply were those principles striking 
root in America which John Hampden had asserted and 
poured out his blood to defend in the great ship-money 
contest with Charles I — which brought that unhappy 
monarch to the block, and which, fulfilling the appre- 
hensions of Mr. Clarke, thirty-five years afterward, sepa- 
rated the colonies from the British Crown — although in 
the answer of the House to the " insinuation of a suspi- 
cion " of a desire for independence, with real or affected 

* Vide Journals of the Colonial Assembly, vol. 1, Hugh Gain's edition. This 
(1741) was the year in which the chapel, barracks, Secretary's office, &c, at 
Fort George (the Battery) were burned, and the speech referred to in the text 
asked an appropriation for their rebuilding— but without success. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. ]47 

gravity, they " vouched that not a single person in the 
colony had any such thoughts;" adding, " for under what 
government can we be better protected, or our liberties or 
properties so well secured?" 

But the popularity of Mr. Clarke was rapidly on the 
wane. Chief-Justice De Lancey, the master-spirit of the 
council, having rather abandoned him, and attached him- 
self to the popular party, managed to preserve a consid- 
erate coolness on the part of that body toward their execu- 
tive head, while the house heeded but little his recom- 
mendations. 

The only object of local excitement, however, during 
the year 1741, was the celebrated plot (supposed to have 
been discovered), on the part of the negroes, to murder 
the inhabitants of New York, and ravage and burn the 
city — an affair which reflects little credit either upon the 
discernment or the humanity of that generation. 

African slavery had existed from an early period in 
New Netherlancl. It was encouraged as the most certain 
and economical way of introducing slavery in a new 
country, where there was no surplus population. The 
slave-trade was brought into the Dutch colony by the 
Dutch West India Company, and, shortly after its intro- 
duction, became a considerable and profitable branch of 
its shipping interest. A "prime slave" was valued from 
one hundred and twenty dollars to one hundred and fifty 
dollars, and below this price he could not profitably be 
purchased from Africa or the West Indies. In 1702, there 
were imported one hundred and sixty-five African slaves ; 
in 1718 five hundred and seventeen. After that year, 
however, the traffic began to fall off, the natural increase 
being large.* 



* Almost every family in the colony owned one or more negro servants ; 
and among the richer classes their number was considered a certain evidence 
of their master's easy circumstances. About the year 1703 — a period of pros- 



148 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

As far back as 1628. slaves constituted a portion of 
the population of New Amsterdam ; and to such an 
extent had the traffic in them reached that, in 1709, 
a slave-market was erected at the foot of Wall Street, 
where all negroes who were to be hired or sold, stood 
in readiness for bidders. Their introduction into the 
colony was hastened by the colonial establishment of 
the Dutch in Brazil and upon the coast of Guinea, 
and also by the capture of Spanish and Portuguese 
prizes with Africans on board. The boere-knechts, or 
servants, whom the settlers brought over with them 
from Holland, soon deserted their field-work for the fur 
traffic, thus causing European laborers to become scarce 
and high ; and, as a natural result, slaves, by their cheap- 
ness, became one of the staples of the new country. In 
1652, the Directors at Amsterdam removed the export 
duty of eight per cent., which had been hitherto paid 
by the colonists on tobacco. The passage-money to New 
Netherland was also lessened from fifty to thirty guilders ; 
and, besides trading to the Brazils, the settlers were al- 
lowed "to sail to the coast of Angola and Africa to 
procure as many negroes as they might be willing to 
employ."* 

Several outbreaks had already happened among the 
negroes of New Amsterdam ; and the whites lived in 
constant anticipation of trouble and danger from them. 
Rumors of an intended insurrection, real or imaginary, 
would circulate (as in the negro plot of 1712) and the 

pcrity in wealth and social refinement with the Dutch of New Amsterdam — ■ 
the widow Van Cortlandt held five male slaves, two female, and two chil- 
dren ; Colonel De Peyster had the same number ; William Beekman, two ; 
Rip Van Dam, six ; Mrs. Stuyvesant, five ; Mrs. Kip, seven ; David Pro- 
voost, three, &c. 

* In the year 1755 a census of slaves was taken in all the colonies except 
Albany, New York, and Suffolk — Borough numbered 91 ; Manor of Polham. 
24 ; Westchester, 73 : Bushwick, 43 ; Flatbush, 35 ; New Utrecht, 67 ; New- 
town, 87 ; Oyster-Bay, 97, &c, &c. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 149 

whole city be thrown into a state of alarm. Whether 
there was any real danger on these occasions cannot be 
known, but the result was always the same, viz.: the 
slaves always suffered, many dying by the fagot or the 
gallows. 

The "Negro Plot" of 1741, however, forms a serious 
and bloody chapter in the history of New York. At this 
distance of time it is hard to discover the truth amid the 
fears and prejudices which attended that public calamity. 
The city then contained some ten thousand inhabitants, 
about one-fifth of whom were African slaves, called the 
" black seed of Cain." Many of the laws for their govern- 
ment were most unjust and oppressive. Whenever three 
of them were found together they were liable to be pun- 
ished by forty lashes on the bare back, and the same 
penalty followed their walking with a club outside of their 
master's grounds without a permit. Two justices could 
inflict any punishment, except amputation or death, for 
any blow or assault by a slave upon a Christian or a Jew. 
Such was the outrageous law. New York swarmed with 
negroes, and her leading merchants were engaged in the 
slave-trade, at that time regarded fair and honorable. 
New York then resembled a Southern city, with its cala- 
boose on the Park Commons and its slave-market at the 
foot of Wall Street. 

The burning of the public buildings, comprising the 
Governor's residence, the Secretary's office, the chapel, and 
barracks, in March, 1741, was first announced to the Gen- 
eral Assembly by the Lieutenant-Governor as the result of 
an accident — a plumber who had been engaged upon some 
repairs having left fire in a gutter between the house and 
chapel. But several other fires occurring shortly after- 
ward in different parts of the city, some of them, perhaps, 
under circumstances that could not readily be explained, 
suspicions were awakened that the whole were acts of 



150 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

incendiaries. Not a chimney caught fire — and chimneys 
were not at that day very well swept — but the incident was 
attributed to design. Such was the case in respect to the 
chimney of Captain Warren's house, situated near the ruins 
of the public buildings, by the taking fire of which the 
roof was partially destroyed ; and other instances might 
be enumerated. Suspicion, to borrow the language of 
Shakespeare, "hath a ready tongue," and is "all stuck full 
of eyes," which are not easily put to sleep. Incidents 
and circumstances, ordinary and extraordinary, were 
seized upon and brought together by comparison, until it 
became obvious to all that there was actually a conspir- 
acy for compassing such a stupendous act of arson as the 
burning of the entire town and murder of the people. 
Nor was it long before the plot was fastened upon the 
negro slaves, then forming no inconsiderable portion of 
the population. A negro, with violent gesticulation, had 
been heard to utter some terms of unintelligible jargon, in 
which the words " fire, fire, scorch, scorch," were heard 
articulated, or supposed to have been heard. The crew of 
a Spanish ship brought into the port as a prize were sold 
into slavery. They were suspected of disaffection — as 
well they might be, and yet be innocent — seized, and 
thrown into prison. Coals were found arranged, as had 
been supposed, for burning a hay-stack; a negro was seen 
jumping over a fence and flying from a house that had 
taken fire in another place; and, in a word, a vast variety 
of incidents, trifling and unimportant, were collated and 
talked over until universal consternation seized upon the 
inhabitants, from the highest to the lowest. As Hume 
remarks of the Popish plot in the reign of Charles II, 
" each breath of rumor made the people start with 
anxiety ; their enemies, they thought, were in their 
bosoms. They were awakened from their slumbers by 
the cry of Plot, and, like men affrighted and in the dark. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. J5J 

took every figure for a specter. The terror of each man 
became a source of terror to another, and a universal 
panic being diffused, reason, and argument, and common 
sense, and common humanity, lost all influence over 
them." * A Titus Oates was found in the person of a 
poor, weak, servant-girl in a sailors' boarding-house, 
named Mary Burton, who, after much importunity, con- 
fessed that she heard certain negroes, in the preceding 
February, conferring in private, for the purpose of setting 
the town on fire. She at first confined the conspirators 
to blacks, but afterward several white persons were 
included, among whom were her landlord, whose name 
was Hughson, his wife, and another maid-servant, and a 
Roman Catholic, named Ury. Some other information 
was obtained from other informers, and numerous arrests 
were made, and the several strong apartments in the City 
Hall, called " the jails," were crowded with prisoners, 
amounting in number to twenty-six whites and above 
one hundred and sixty slaves. Numerous executions 
took place upon the most frivolous and unsatisfactory 
testimony, but jurors and magistrates were alike panic 
stricken and wild with terror. Among the sufferers were 
Hughson, his wife, and the maid-servant, as also the 
Romanist Ury, who was capitally accused, not only as a 
conspirator, but for officiating as a priest, upon an old 
law of the colony, heretofore mentioned as having been 
passed at the instance of Governor Bellamont, to drive 
the French missionaries from among the Indians. ; ' The 
whole summer was spent in the prosecutions ; every new 
trial led to further accusations ; a coincidence of slight 
circumstances was magnified by the general terror into 
violent presumptions ; tales collected without doors, min- 

* Quoted by Dunlap, who has given a good collection of facts respecting 
this remarkable plot, though not rendered into a well-digested narrative. 
See chap, xxi of his History. 



152 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

gling with the proofs given at the bar, poisoned the minds 
of the jurors, and this sanguinary spirit of the day suf- 
fered no check until Mary, the capital informer, bewil- 
dered by frequent examinations and suggestions, began to 
touch characters which malice itself dare not suspect." 
Then, as in the case of the Popish plot and the prose- 
cutions for witchcraft in Salem, the magistrates and 
jurors began to pause. But not until many had been 
sent to their final account by the spirit of fanaticism 
which had bereft men of their reason as innocent of 
the charges laid against them as the convicting courts 
and jurors themselves. Thirteen negroes were burned at 
the stake, eighteen were hanged, and seventy trans- 
ported. * 

The year 1742, if for no other reason, is memorable in 

the annals of the city from the fact that in that year was 

built the house now standing on the site of No. 1 

1742. 

Broadway, and known as the "Washington Hotel," 
and the oldest house in the city. Previous to this year 
(1742) the site was occupied by an old tavern kept by a 
Mrs. Kocks, built the century previous by her husband, 
Pieter Kocks, an officer in the Dutch service and an active 
leader in the Indian war of 1C93. The late Mr. David 
T. Valentine — to whom New York is indebted more than 



* Daniel Horsmanden, the third Justice of the Supreme Court, published the 
history of this strange affair in a ponderous quarto. He was concerned in the 
administration of the judicial proceedings, however, and wrote his history he- 
fore the delusion had passed away. Chief-Justice De Lancey presided at least 
at some of the trials, and he, too, though an able and clear-minded m^n, was 
carried away by the delusion. James De Lancey was the son of Stephen De 
Lancey, a French Huguenot gentleman from Caen, in Normandy, who fled from 
persecution in France. Settling in New York in 1686, he married a daughter 
of M. Van Cortlandt, and was thus connected with one of the most opulent 
families in the province. He was also an active member of the House of 
Assembly during the administration of Governor Hunter. His son James was 
sent to Cambridge University (England), for his education, and bred to the pro- 
fession of the law. On being elevated to the bench, such were his talents and 
application, he became a very profound lawyer. — Smith. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



153 



to any other man for the preservation of its local history, 
and for which she can never be sufficiently grateful — 
usually remarkably accurate, states that the building No. 1 
Broadway was built by Archibald Kennedy (afterward 
Earl of Cassilis), then Collector of the Port of New York. 
This, however, is an error. It was built by Sir Peter, 
afterward Admiral, Warren,* K. C. B. — whose name is so 
identified with the naval glory of England — during his 




NO. 1 BROADWAY FIFTY YEARS AGO. 



residence in New York city. Neither pains nor expense 
were spared to make it one of the finest mansions in this 
country. The plans were all sent out from Lisbon — the 
exterior and interior being similar in every respect to that 
of the British embassador's residing at the Portuguese cap- 

* After whom Warren Street is named. 
20 



154 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

ital. The house was fifty-six feet on Broadway, and when 
erected the rear of the lot was bounded by the North 
River. Greenwich Street was not then opened or built — 
the North River washing the shore. One room of this 
edifice deserves particular notice, being the banqueting- 
room, twenty-six by forty, and used on all great occa- 
sions. After the British forces captured New York, in the 
war of the American Revolution, as the most prominent 
house, it was the headquarters of the distinguished British 
commanders. Sir William Howe, Sir Henry Clinton, and 
Sir Guy Carlton, afterward Lord Dorchester, all in succes- 
sion occupied this house ; and it is a memorable fact that 
the celebrated Major Andre, then Adjutant-General of the 
British forces, and aid to Sir Henry Clinton, resided in 
this house, being in the family of Sir Henry, and departed 
from its portals never to return, when he went up the 
North River and arranged his treasonable project with 
the traitor Arnold at West Point.* 

* This building is also known to historians as the " Kennedy House." 



CHAPTER IV. 

The administration of Lieutenant-Governor Clarke was 
ended in the autumn of 1743, by the arrival of Admiral 
George Clinton, uncle of the Earl of Lincoln, and 
a younger son of the late Earl, who had been 
appointed to the government of New York through the 
interest of his friends, to afford him an opportunity of 
mending his fortunes. Mr. Clarke, who, in the commence- 
ment of his administration, had succeeded in conciliating 
the leaders of both political parties, had contrived before 
the close of his career to lose the confidence of both, so 
that his retirement from the Government was regarded 
with universal satisfaction.* Especially had he incurred 

* George Clarke, Esq., who, in various official stations, was for almost half 
a century connected with the colonial government of New York, was an Eng- 
lishman by birth " His uncle, Mr. Blaithwait, procured the secretaryship of 
the colony for him early in the reign of Queen Anne. He had genius, but no 
other than a common writing-school education ; nor did he add to his stock by 
reading, for he was more intent upon improving his fortune than his mind. He 
was sensible, artful, active, cautious ; had a perfect command of his temper, 
and was in his address specious and civil. Nor was any man better acquainted 
with the colony and its affairs." He successively held the offices of Secretary, 
Clerk of the Council, Councilor, and Lieutenant-Governor ; and from his official 
position he had every opportunity of enriching himself by obtaining grants and 
patents of land, which, from his knowledge of the colony, he was enabled to 
choose in the most advantageous locations. He was a courtier, and was careful 
never to differ with the governors of the colony ; although during Cosby's 
stormy career he usually kept himself quiet at his country villa upon the edge 
of Hempstead plains. " I 'is lady was a Hyde, a woman of fine accomplishments, 



J56 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

the resentment of the Chief-Justice, De Lancey ; who. 
strangely enough, though usually a stanch supporter of 
the prerogatives of the Crown, had now become, to some 
extent, a favorite of the General Assembly. The new 
Governor had spent most of his life in the navy; and, 
according to the earliest English historian of New York, 
" preferring ease and good cheer to the restless activity of 
ambition, there wanted nothing to engage the interest of 
his powerful patrons in his favor more than to humor a 
simple-hearted man, who had no ill-nature, nor sought 
anything more than a genteel frugality and common civil- 
ity while he was mending those fortunes, until his friends 
at court could recall him to some indolent and more 
lucrative station." 

Mr. Clinton arrived in New York on the 22d of Sep- 
tember, and was received with demonstrations of univer- 
sal satisfaction by the people Finding that the General 
Assembly stood adjourned to meet in a few days, and 
ascertaining that the people would be pleased with an 
opportunity of holding a new election, the Assembly was 
dissolved on the 27th, and writs for the return of 
another Assembly issued the same day. The elections 
were conducted without political acrimony, and all the 
old members, with but seven exceptions, were returned. 

and a distant relation of that branch of the Clarendon family. She died in 
New York. Mr. Clarke returned to England in 1745, with acquisitions esti- 
mated at one hundred thousand pounds. He purchased an estate in Cheshire, 
where he died about the year 1761. George Clarke, his grandson and the heir 
to his estates, after a residence in America of about thirty-five years, died at 
Otsego about the year 1835. His eldest son, George Hyde Clarke, with his 
young wife, was lost in the ship Albion, wrecked on the coast of Ireland in the 
summer of 1820, on his passage from New York to England. His second son 
then returned to England and entered into possession of the fortune of his 
father's estates situated in that country. By the vast increase in price of his 
American lands, Mr. Clarke's estates in this country became of princely value 
before his death. They are inherited by his youngest son, George Clarke, Esq., 
who at present resides in the noble mansion erected by his father a few years 
before his decease, upon the margin of Otsego Lake." 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 157 

The session opened on the 8th of November. Meantime, 
the Governor had fallen into the hands of De Lancey, 
who doubtless had the molding of his excellency's speech. 
Its tone was conciliatory, although the sore subject of a 
permanent revenue was opened afresh. But this was 
done in gentle terms, the Governor asking for a grant 
" in as ample a manner, and for a time as long, as had 
been given under any of his predecessors." The Assem- 
bly was informed that, owing to the critical state of affairs 
in Europe, and the doubtful attitude in which Great Brit- 
ain and France stood toward each other, a large supply 
of military stores for the defense of the colony had been 
received from the parent government ; and the Governor 
hoped the Assembly would show their thankfulness by 
making an adequate provision for the purchase of others. 
The usual recommendations in regard to the Indian inter- 
course of the colony were renewed, and an appropriation 
was asked for rebuilding the barracks and public offices, 
together with the house of the Governor, which had been 
destroyed by fire. The latter recommendation was in- 
sisted on as being necessary for the comfort of the 
Governor's family. 

"An humble address" was voted by the council in 
reply, drawn up by De Lancey. The appointment of the 
new Governor was received " as an additional evidence of 
his majesty's affection for his people, and his zeal for the 
liberty of mankind, lately most evidently demonstrated. in 
his exposing his sacred person to the greatest dangers in 
defense of the liberty of Europe." In all other respects 
the answer was an echo of the speech. The address of 
the House was more than an echo ; it was couched in 
language of excessive flattery to the new Governor, and 
of fawning adulation toward the sovereign, who was desig- 
nated " the darling of his own people, and the glorious 
preserver of the liberties of Europe." There was, how- 



158 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

ever, a disposition on all sides to be pleased. The Assem- 
bly responded to the demanded appropriations, voting the 
Governor fifteen hundred pounds for his salary, one hun- 
dred pounds for house-rent, four hundred pounds for fuel 
and candles, one hundred and fifty pounds to enable him 
to visit the Indians, and eight hundred pounds for the pur- 
chase of presents to be distributed amongst them. Other 
appropriations were made upon a scale of corresponding 
liberality ; and the Governor was so well pleased with the 
good temper of the Assembly, that he signed every bill 
presented for his approbation without a murmur of disap- 
probation, not even excepting the supply-bill, which, not- 
withstanding his demand to the contrary, in the opening 
speech, was limited to the year. 

But, notwithstanding these reciprocal manifestations 
of good feeling, and notwithstanding, also, the amiable 
traits of the Governor's natural disposition, it will be seen, 
in the progress of events, that the bluff characteristics of 
the sailor were not always to be concealed ; and his 
administration, in process of time, became as tempestuous 
as the element upon which he was certainly more at home 
than upon the land. 

Advices of the intended invasion of his majesty's 
dominions, in behalf of a "Popish Pretender," were com- 
municated to the General Assembly of New York 
by Governor Clinton, in April, 1744. In connec- 
tion with this anticipated act of hostility, which would of 
course extend to the contiguous colonies of the two coun- 
tries, efficient measures were urged for placing the country 
in a posture of defense. The temper of the colony, in 
regard to this movement of France, mav be inferred from 
the immediate action of the Assembly. In the council, 
Chief-Justice De Lancey, in moving an address of thanks 
for the speech, offered also a resolution expressive of the 
abhorrence of that body of the designs of France in favor 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 159 

of the Pretender, and declaring that the civil and religious 
rights of his majesty's subjects depended on the Protest- 
ant succession. The House was invited to join in the 
address, which request, though a very unusual procedure, 
was readily acquiesced in, and the address was prepared 
by a joint committee of the two houses. From all this it 
was evident that a war was very near at hand, and that 
the frontiers of the colony might again, very soon, be sub- 
jected to the ravages of a foe than whose tender mercies 
nothing could be more cruel. 

In 1746, the small-pox drove the Assembly from the 
city to Greenwich ; but soon appearing there also, pro- 
duced a panic that for several days entirely 
arrested the course of business. The Assembly 
prayed for a recess from the 9th of March to the 12 th of 
April, and also for leave to adjourn their sittings to some 
other place. Jamaica and Brooklyn were suggested ; bat 
in the opinion of the Governor the demands of the public 
service forbade so long an interregnum, and he therefore 
directed their adjournment for a week, to meet in the 
borough of Westchester. They convened there accord- 
ingly ; but the inconvenience of the locality was such that 
the members begged permission to adjourn even back to 
the infected city again, rather than remain where they 
were. In the end the Governor directed them to trans- 
fer their sittings to Brooklyn, at which place the transac- 
tion of business was resumed on the 20th of March, when 
an address to the Governor was ordered to be prepared 
in answer to that of the council, respecting the rejection 
of the before-mentioned revenue bill. 

Before the introduction of the bill, the Assembly had 
inquired of the Governor whether he had any objection 
to an emission of paper money to meet the exigencies of 
the country ; to which question the proper answer was 
given by Mr. Clinton, that " when the bill came to him 



160 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

he would declare his opinion." The bill was therefore 
introduced and passed by the Assembly ; but the coun- 
cil, disapproving of certain of its provisions, requested a 
conference. The Assembly, however, declared that, inas- 
much as it was a money bill, they would consent to no 
such course upon the subject. The council thereupon 
summarily rejected the bill, and sent up an address to the 
Governor, written by the Chief-Justice, De Lancey, set- 
ting forth the reasons by which its course had been 
governed. One of the objections to the bill, according to 
this representation, was found in the fact, " that the 
money proposed to be raised by the bill was not granted 
to his majesty, or to be issued by warrants in council, as 
it ought to have been, and as has usually been done." 
This objection involved the whole question of the royal 
prerogative — nothing more. On the subject of the right 
claimed by the Assembly of exclusive power over the 
details of money bills, the address asserted " the equal 
rights of the council to exercise their judgments upon 
these bills." Various other objections of detail were sug- 
gested ; but the two points specified above were the only 
grounds of principle upon which the council relied in 
justification of its course. Yet the unreasonableness of 
the assumption of the House, that the council should not 
be allowed even to point out and rectify the defects of 
any thing which they chose to call a money bill, was 
argued at considerable length. 

There was yet another cause of irritation on the parj 
of the House. So early as the year 1709, the General 
Assembly had found it necessary, in providing ways and 
means for the public service — especially in the prosecu- 
tion of the several wars in which the colony had been 
involved by the Parent Government — to issue a paper 
currency, called bills of credit. The operation had been 
repeated, from time to time, in emergent cases — some- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 161 

times with the approbation of the Crown, and sometimes 
not — until these paper issues had become a part of the 
policy of the colony. Others of the colonies, laboring 
under the same necessities, had resorted to the same 
measures of finance ; but to which the Crown, jealous of its 
prerogative in all matters of currency, had uniformly 
been opposed. For many years, therefore, antecedent to 
this period, the royal governors had arrived in the colony 
clothed with instructions against allowing further emis- 
sions of bills of credit — instructions, however, which the 
stern law of necessity had seldom allowed them to enforce. 
Still, the Crown, keenly alive to every step of inde- 
pendent action on the part of the colonies, was persisting 
in its war against a colonial currency even of paper ; and 
a bill was now before Parliament, upon the subject, which 
gave great alarm to the people. Professedly, its design 
was merely for preventing these bills of credit from being 
made a legal tender ; but it was discovered that the bill 
was to have a far more extensive operation — " obliging 
and enjoining the legislatures of every colony to pay 
strict obedience to all such orders and instructions as 
might from time to time be transmitted to them, or any 
of them, by his majesty or his successors, or by or under 
his or their authority." Such an act, it was justly held, 
" would establish an absolute power in the Crown, in all 
the British plantations, that would be inconsistent with 
the liberties and privileges inherent in an English man, 
while he is in a British dominion. 

Incensed at this stubbornness on the part of his little 
Parliament, the sailor-Governor determined, in the Assem- 
bly, which met on the 12th of October, 1748, to 
re-assert the prerogative in the strongest terms by 
bringing the subject of a permanent supply to a direct 
issue ; choosing, as Mr. Bancroft has remarked, New 
York " as the opening scene in the final contest that led 

21 



162 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

to independence." Accordingly, on the 14th he sent down 
his message to the House, in which he demanded a per- 
manent support for five years. The message stated that 
on coming to the administration of the Government, he 
had been disposed to do all he could, consistently with 
his duty to the king, for the care and satisfaction of the 
people. Hence, reposing confidence in the advice then 
given him, he had given his assent to various acts of the 
Assembly, the tendency of which, as experience had 
taught him, was to weaken the authority of his majesty's 
Government. Still, as the country was very soon after- 
ward involved in war, he had forborne to take that atti- 
tude in the premises which duty to his sovereign seemed 
to require But with the return of peace, he deemed it 
to be his indispensable duty to put a stop to such innova- 
tions. Prominent among these was the practice which 
had been growing up of making only an annual provision 
for the payment of the officers of the Government. He 
also alluded to the modern practice of naming the officers 
for whose benefit the appropriations were made in the 
act, thus interfering with the prerogative in the appoint- 
ing honor. He admonished the Assembly that he should 
give his assent to no acts of that character for the future ; 
and demanded an appropriation for the payment of the 
Governor's secretaries, judges, and other salaried officers, 
for the term of five years, according to the practice that 
had prevailed during the administration of his four imme- 
diate predecessors — namely, Governors Hunter, Burnet, 
Montgomery, and Cosby. The inconvenience of these 
annual grants of salaries and allowances was adverted to, 
and objections further urged against the recent method 
of intermixing matters of an entirely different nature 
with the provisions of the salary-bills, and tacking new 
grants for other purposes to the Governor's own support. 
The Assembly, in its reply, justly regarding the re- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 153 

quest for a permanent supply as a direct attempt to 
render the Crown independent of the people, with great 
indignation refused to grant it. As to the more recent 
practice of naming the officers provided for in the salary- 
bills, it not only justified it, but intimated that if this 
course had been adopted at an earlier day, his excellency 
would not have been able to remove the third Justice 
of the Supreme Court "without any color of misconduct" 
on his part — who was " a gentleman of learning and 
experience in the law."* The result can readily be seen. 
After continual bickerings for several weeks, Mr. Clinton, 
in great wrath, prorogued the Assembly. 

Thus the parties separated, and thus again commenced 
that great struggle between the Republican and the Mon- 
archical principle which, in the onward progress of the 
former, was destined at a day not even then far distant 
to work such mighty results in the Western Hemisphere. 

Although, from a very early date in the historv of 
this protracted controversy, it became inexcusably per- 
sonal, yet it is not difficult to perceive that it was in 
reality one of principle. On the one hand, the infant 
Hercules, though still in his cradle, was becoming impa- 
tient of restraint. The yoke of colonial servitude chafed 
the necks, if not of the people, at least of their representa- 
tives. The royal Governor was not slow to perceive what 
kind of leaven was fermenting the body politic ; and 
hence he became perhaps overjealous in asserting and 
defending the prerogatives of his master. Doubtless, in 
the progress of the quarrel, there were faults on both 
sides. Of an irascible and overbearing temperament, 
and accustomed in his profession to command rather than 
to persuade, he was ill-qualified to exercise a limited or 



* Alluding to the removal, the year before, of Justice Horsmanden. This 
act was again imputed to the influence of " a person of a mean and despicable 
character " — meaning, as it was well understood, Dr. Golden. 



164 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

concurrent power with a popular Assembly equally jealous 
of its own privileges and of the liberties of the people — 
watching with sleepless vigilance for every opportunity 
to circumscribe the influence of the Crown, and ready at 
every moment to resist the encroachments of arbitrary 
power. Still, however patriotic the motives, under the 
promptings of De Lancey, their opposition to Mr. Clinton 
became factious ; and it is not difficult even for a republican 
to believe that he was treated, not only with harshness, 
but with great injustice, especially in regard to his 
measures, and his personal exertions for the public defense 
and the prosecution of the Indian war. 

At length, worn out in health and spirits by his 
struggle against a powerful opposition, Clinton, in 1753, 
1753. sent in his resignation to the Home Government, 
and Sir Danvers Osborne was appointed in his stead. 

The character of Mr. Clinton has not, I think, been 
fairly drawn. Those upon whose opinions his character 
rests were persons living at the same day, and who, influ- 
enced by party strife, were not in a position to judge 
impartially. He was an uncouth and unlettered admiral, 
who had been, through the Newcastle interest, appointed to 
the chair of Governor. He was evidently unsuited to his 
position; and his former profession, in which he had always 
been accustomed to command, ill fitted him to brave the 
rebuffs and the opposition of party faction. His manner, 
too, was not such as to win friends. Having to depend 
entirely upon the advice of those around him, he was 
often the dupe of those better versed in the arts of diplo- 
macy than himself. But I look in vain for that love of 
ease, to the neglect of his official duties, of which he is 
accused by his enemies. On the contrary, although he 
relied too much on the advice of others for his own good, 
yet it was caused more by a consciousness of a lack of 
education than by a desire to shirk action. In the care 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 165 

of the Indians he was indefatigable, as appears by his 
large correspondence with Colonel (afterward Sir William) 
Johnson and the officers of the different frontier posts. 
He labored incessantly with his Assembly to make them 
realize the condition of the colony; and had they met his 
views half-way, or even manifested a tithe of his energy, 
the Province of New York would not have presented such 
an inviting field for the encroachments of the French. He 
is accused of amassing by unfair means a large fortune 
while Governor, yet he freely advanced out of his private 
purse large sums for the exigencies of the Indian affairs, 
and many times saved the Six Nations from defection, 
and the province from the horrors of a predatory warfare, 
when it was impossible to rouse the Assembly to a sense 
of danger. Indeed, I think it may safely be said that, 
had it not been for the untiring efforts of Mr. Clinton and 
Colonel Johnson, the Six Nations would have been com- 
pletely won over by the French, and the fire-brand and 
tomahawk carried down to the very gates of New York. 

Meanwhile, several public edifices had been erected, 
and various improvements had taken place in the city. In 
1747, the Presbyterian church in Wall Street, which had 
been erected by Hunter, was rebuilt. " In the course of the 
next two years, Beekman and the contiguous streets were 
regulated. Ferry Street was ceded to the city; Beek- 
man, Dey, and Thames Streets were paved; Pearl Street 
was dug down near Peck Slip, and graded from Franklin 
Square to Chatham Street ; and John Street was paved 
and regulated.* In 1751, a Moravian Chapel was built 

* Another important event occurred about this time, which should not be 
omitted by one who attempts to give a history of the city — inasmuch as it 
gives us the origin of the yearly appropriation made by the Common Council 
for the City Manual — viz., that in 1747 the Common Council appropriated 
four pounds for the publication of fifty copies of An Essay on the Duties of 
Vestrymen ! 



1G6 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

in Fulton Street ; the following year, the first Merchants' 
Exchange was erected at the foot of Broad Street ; and St. 
George's Chapel was built by Trinity Church on the corner 
of Cliff and Beekman, and was consecrated on the 1st of 
July by the Rev. Mr. Barclay, a former missionary among 
the Mohawks, but now the rector of Trinity Church." 
This building remained in good preservation, well known 
as one of the few original landmarks, until 1868, when it 
shared the fate of other structures of a similar character, 
and was torn down to make room for another altar to the 
god Mammon ! This was, next to the Post-office, the 
oldest church-edifice in the city, and its quaint old chan- 
deliers, and aisles flagged with gray stone, continued for 
many years relics of the days of yore. Washington, it is 
said, was a frequent attendant of this church during his 
residence in this city in the early part of the Revolution- 
ary War. In speaking of the history of this edifice, a 
writer in the New York World, of March 17th, 1868, 
recalls the following interesting facts : 

" One hundred and twenty years ago, New York city bad not attained its 
majority, and Broadway was but a cow-patb above Canal Street. The Right 
Honorable George Clinton, ' Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief in and over 
the Province of New York and the Territories thereon, Depending in America, 
Vice-Admiral of the Same, and Vice-Admiral of the Red Squadron of His Maj- 
esty's Fleet,' as that most doughty and right honorable personage was wont to 
sign himself in proclamations to the fat burghers of New York, sat in the chair 
now filled by Reuben E. Fenton. In that day, New York city was a nest for 
privateers, which sailed hence to destroy French and Spanish commerce. 
According as their destination might be, these vessels, with a fair quantity of 
rum, molasses, and sea-provisions, would be piloted to the Hook, and there 
take on board an India, Mediterranean, or other pilot, to carry them to their 
destination. Small negro boys and Jamaica men in parcels were sold at auc- 
tion where now the Custom-house rears its lofty pillars. Maria Theresa, 
Empress of Austria and Queen of Bohemia and Hungary, wielded the scepter 
of the Caesars ; George the Second, Fidei Defensor, twiddled his thumbs in 
Windsor Park and played bowls with his Hanoverian mistresses ; and wheat 
was six shillings a bushel ; flour, eighteen shillings a hundred ; beef, forty shil 
lings a barrel ; West-India rum, three and eight pence a gallon ; salt, three 
shillings a bushel; and single-refined sugar, one and 'tuppence' a pound in 
New York city. Manus Carroll had been hung at the old powder-house, which 
Btill stands on an eminence at the upper end of the Central Park, for a cruel 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. ]G7 

and most ' un-Christian'-like murder which he had committed two years before 
in Albany, then a thriving town. Counterfeiters were at that time amenable 
to the death-penalty ; and the Barnum of that day exhibited wax-figures in Dock 
Street, and the editor of the New York Weekly Post Boy was in the habit of 
receiving presents of baskets of Bermuda potatoes from the masters of vessels 
bound into the goodly port of New York. One day the editor received a potato 
weighing seven pounds from the master of the Good Delight, from Plumb 
Island, in the far-off ' Bermoothes,' and, out of sheer joy at the prodigy, he went 
and made himself drunk on ' arrack-punch,' the most aristocratic tipple of our 
forefathers' days. The city and county of New York had at that early day a 
population of twelve thousand, two thousand of which number were negroes. 

"On the loth of April, 1748, a number of gentlemen met in the vestry of 
King's Chapel, or Trinity Church, then situated where the present church 
stands in the Broadway, but, at the time referred to, overhanging the banks of 
the Hudson, whose limits have since been pushed back a quarter of a mile by 
the contractors and dust-collectors ; and these gentlemen being of the opinion, 
after a deliberate consultation, that it was necessary to have a chapel of ease 
connected with Trinity, it was then and there ordained that the Church-ward- 
ens, Colonel Moore, Mr. Watts, Mr. Livingston, Mr. Chambers, Mr. Horsman- 
den, Mr. Reade, and Mr. Lodge, be appointed a committee to select a place for 
the erection ' of ye ' Chapel of St. George's. Another meeting was held on the 
4th of July, 1748. Colonel Robinson, one of the committee, reported that he 
had agreed with a Mr. Clarkson for a number of lots, for which that person 
had asked the sum of £500, to be paid in a year ; and several persons in Mont- 
gomerie Ward had stated to him that the lots of Colonel Beekman, fronting 
Beekman and Van Cliff Streets, would be more commodious for building the 
said chapel, and proposed that if the vestry would agree to the building of the 
chapel on Colonel Beekman's property, the inhabitants of Montgomerie Ward 
would raise money anions themselves to purchase the ground, and that if Mr. 
Clarkson insisted on the performance of the agreement with him for his lots, 
they would take a conveyance for them, and pay the purchase-money ; which 
was agreed to after many hot words ; for these respectable vestrymen, in a 
manner like all vestrymen from time immemorial, had tempers of their own. 
and no doubt they were exercised at the fact that the doughty Robinson had 
taken upon himself to make an agreement to purchase lots for £500, a very 
large sum in those days, when the gold-board had not been established, while, 
on the other hand, the inhabitants of Montgomerie Ward, which was afterward 
called the ' Swamp ' in the memory of man, were, without whip or spur, eager 
for the honor and glory of the future, to furnish the lots and build upon them a 
church. Well, the vestrymen went home and drank more arrack-punch, sweet- 
ened with muscovado sugar, and punished ' oelykoeks,' greasy with oil and other 
substances, and then returned to the bosoms of their respective families. Dona- 
tions poured in to the committee, and the first subscription, of £100, was made by 
Sir Peter Warren, who desired, if not inconsistent with the rules of the church, 
that they would reserve a pew for himself and family in perpetuity. The 
Archbishop of Canterbury contributed ten pounds. The installation services 
were held on the 1st day of July, A. D. 1752 ; but there being no bishop in the 
country at the time, it was consecrated agreeably to the ancient usajjes of the 
church. The Rev. Henry Barclay, D. D., at this time, was the rector, and Rev. 
Samuel Auchmuty, D. D., assistant minister of Trinity Church. Being finished 



168 HISTOEY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

in the finest style of architecture of the period, and having a handsome and 
lofty steeple, this edifice was justly deemed a great ornament to the city. It 
first stood alone, there being but few other houses in its vicinity. Shortly sub- 
sequent, however, the streets were graded and built upon, and now the im- 
mense warehouses of enterprising merchants and bandsome private residences 
surround it on every side. When first constructed, the interior arrangement 
of St. George's differed considerably from the present, the chancel at that time 
being contained in the circular recess at the rear of the church, and the altar 
standing back against the rear-wall in. full view of the middle aisle. Tbere 
was also some difference in the arrangement of the desk, pulpit, and clerk's 
desk. An interesting relation is told concerning the material of which this 
part of the church-furniture was made, and it may be thus condensed : In one 
of tbe voyages made by a sea-captain, whose vessel was unfortunately wrecked, 
he sustained, among other injuries, tbe loss of the vessel's masts. This disas- 
ter occurring on a coast where no other wood than mahogany could be procured, 
the captain was obliged to remedy the loss by replacing the old masts with 
masts made of mahogany. This ship, thus repaired, returned to this port about 
the time St. George's was building, when more suitable masts were substituted, 
and those made of mahogany were donated to the church. The pulpit, desk, 
and chancel-rails were removed some years afterward, and it may be interest- 
ing to state that that they can now be seen answering a like capacity in Christ 
Church, in the little town of Manhasset, on Long Island. 

" There is an incident connected with the beautiful font of this church 
which will also bear repetition. Originally intended for a Catholic church in 
South America, it was shipped on a French vessel to be carried to its destina- 
tion ; but whilst on the voyage it was captured by the English during the old 
French war and brought to this city. This font is made of white marble, and 
is a masterly piece of workmanship. In 1814, when St. George's was burned, 
this font was supposed to have been destroyed, but it was found about thirty 
years ago in a remote part of the church, where it had been removed during 
the conflagration. It was somewhat damaged, but not enough, however, to 
prevent its further use ; and after being cleaned and repaired it was replaced 
in front of the chancel, where it now stands, an interesting feature of the time- 
honored building. 

" One of the melancholy events associated with this old church was the 
sudden death of the Rev. John Ogilvie. On the 18th of November, 1774, whilst 
delivering one of the lectures he was in the habit of holding on Friday even- 
ings, he was struck with apoplexy. He had given out his text : ' To show that 
the Lord is upright : he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.' 
— Psalm, xcii, 15 : and after repeating a sentence or two he sank into the read- 
ing-desk, and was deprived of speech. He suffered thus for eight days, when 
he was relieved by death. It was in this chapel, in July, 1787, that the Right 
Rev. Samuel Provost, the first bishop of the diocese of New York, held his 
first ordination, at which time the late Right Rev. Richard C. Moore, D. D., 
Bishop of Virginia, and the Rev. Joseph G. I. Bend, of Baltimore, were made 
deacons. In the year 1811, arrangements were made for a separation between 
the congregation of St George's and the corporation of Trinity Church, after 
which the former became duly organized as a separate parish, known as St. 
George's Church. 

"The following persons composed the first vestry: Church-wardens — 




ST. GEORGE'S CHAPEL 




ST. .GEORGE BUILDING. 



170 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Gerrit Van Wagenen and Henry Peters. Vestrymen — Francis Doniinick, 
Isaac Lawrence, Isaac Carovv, Robert Wardell, Cornelius Schermerhorn, John 
Onderdonk, Edward W. Laight, and William Green. Alter St. George's 
became a separate parish, its first minister was the Rev. John Brady, who after- 
ward became an assistant under the Rev. John Kewly. St. George's was 
entirely consumed by fire in the month of January, 1814, nothing being saved 
but the bare walls. After a proper examination, these walls were decided to 
be safe enough to bear another roof, and when this was put on the whole 
interior of the building was renewed. The interior of the church is much 
more handsomely finished than the exterior, the carved capitals of the Corin- 
thian order presenting a fine specimen of architectural beauty. The ground- 
floor is divided into three aisles, and on either side a commodious gallery is 
supported by massive columns. At the west end, and connecting these two, 
there is another gallery, in the middle of which is located a handsome ma- 
hogany organ. Above this end gallery there are two smaller ones, which are 
used by the Sunday-school pupils. From the center of the ceiling three large 
magnificent glass chandeliers depend, and these are among the few articles that 
were saved from the fire. Over the side-galleries three smaller but very beau- 
tiful chandeliers are hung above the arches. When St. George's was com- 
pleted a second time, it was placed by the vestry under the pastoral charge of 
the Rev. Dr. Milnor, who continued to fill the rectorship until the 8th of 
April, 1845, when he died. This venerable minister was held in high esteem 
by his parish, and his death was sincerely lamented. He had been a lawyer 
in Philadelphia in early life, and for several terms represented that city in 
Congress. In 1813, he abandoned secular pursuits, and was admitted to 
priests' and deacons' orders by Bishop White. 

" One hundred years after the consecration of St. George's, a grand cente- 
nary celebration was held in the church, and hundreds of worhipers knelt in 
the shadow of the pulpit from which George Washington had often heard 
the sacred text read and expounded. Dr. Tyng held the rectorship until the 
new edifice in Sixteenth Street was finished, when the communion service 
was removed to the new church, and a number of old relics carried away. 
Now the venerable pile is being gutted from organ-loft to altar, and the hungry 
doors stand open that all may see the nakedness of the edifice. The old gray 
flag-stones, worn by the feet of Schuylers, Livingstons, Reades, Van ('lift's, 
Beekmans, Van Rensselaers, Cortlandts, Moores, and others, well known and 
respected in the infancy of the metropolis, are to be torn up and converted 
into lime ; the pulpit will go to a junk-shop, and the rest of the furniture to 
the wood-yard. At present the graves of Revolutionary heroes serve as a 
depository for ashes and rubbish, and vessels are emptied daily from the win- 
dows adjoining on places where, a hundred years ago, were carved the 
sacred words never to be effaced, " Requiescat in pace." The old church has 
to be torn down, and the six lots will be sold to the highest purchasers. The 
church was the oldest in the city but one. the building occupied as a post-office 
having been the first building erected as a place of worship. The property 
purchased from Colonel Beekman for £500 is now worth, it is said, half a 
million of dollars." * 



♦The site of this building is now (1871) occupied by the elegant marble building of the 
Oriental and American Stove Works. 



CHAPTER V. 

Mr. Clinton was at his country-seat at Flushing, 
L. I., when his successor, Sir Danvers Osborne, arrived. 
This was on Sunday, the 7th of October, 1753. The 
council, mayor, corporation, and the chief citi- 
zens met the new Governor on his arrival, and 
escorted him to the council chamber. The following day 
Mr. Clinton called upon him, and they both dined with 
the members of the council. On Wednesday morning 
Mr. Clinton administered to him the oath of office, and 
delivered to him the seals ; at the same time delivering 
to James De Lancey his commission as Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor. As soon as these forms were finished, Governor 
Osborne, attended by the council and Mr. Clinton, set 
out for the Town-hall, where the new commission was 
usually read to the people. Scarcely, however, had the 
procession advanced a few steps, when the rabble, incited, 
it is said, by the De Lancey faction, insulted Mr. Clinton 
so grossly as to compel him to leave the party and retire 
into the fort. In the evening cannon were fired, bonfires 
lighted, fire-works displayed, and the whole city was given 
up to a delirium of joy. Amid all these rejoicings, the 
new Governor sat in his room, gloomy and sad ; and. 
seemingly averse to conversation, retired early. On 
Thursday morning he informed the council that his strict 
orders were to insist upon an indefinite support for the 



172 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Government, and desired to have the opinion of the 
board upon the probabilities of its success. It was 
universally agreed by the members present that the 
Assembly never would submit to this demand, and that 
a permanent support could not be enforced. Turning to 
Mr. Smith, who had hitherto remained silent, he re- 
quested his opinion, which being to the same effect as 
that just expressed, Sir Danvers Osborne sighed, and, 
leaning against the window, with his face partially con- 
cealed, exclaimed, in great mental distress, " Then, what 
am I sent here for V 7 That same evening he was so 
unwell that a physician was summoned, with whom he 
conversed for a little time, and then retired to his cham- 
ber, where he spent the most of the night in arranging 
his private affairs. In the morning he was found sus- 
pended from the top of the garden-fence, dead.* 

Sir Danvers Osborne had lost a wife, to whom he was 
passionately attached, shortly before coming to New 
York. This acting upon a mind morbidly sensitive, had 
thrown him into a melancholy bordering upon insanity. 
He came to the Government charged with instructions 
much more stringent in their tone than those given to his 
predecessor ; and, knowing the difficulty which Mr. Clinton 
experienced during his administration, he saw before him 
only a succession of storms and tempests. Almost the 
first words of the city corporation in their address to 
him in the Town-hall — " that they would not brook any 
infringement of their liberties, civil and religious" — con- 
vinced Sir Danvers Osborne of the utter impossibility of 
the task assigned to him. All these causes working upon 
a morbid state of mind— wishing to carry out his instruc- 
tions on the one hand, yet seeing its utter hopelessness on 

* Manuscript affidavits of Philip Crosby and John Milligan before the 
council. Sworn to October 12th, 1753, and now preserved in the Secretary-of- 
State's Office, Albany, N. Y. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. ]73 

the other — produced a temporary insanity, in which state 
he committed the rash act. Party rage, it is true, threw 
out suspicions of unfair play ; and the council even 
thought it worth while to appoint a committee to investi- 
gate more fully the circumstances of his death ; but these 
suspicions, it was made clearly evident, were entirely 
without foundation. 

Immediately on the death of Governor Osborne, Mr. 
De Lancey, by virtue of his commission as Lieutenant- 
Governor, assumed the reins of government. The role 
which he was henceforth to play, though difficult, was 
acted with his usual shrewdness and address. He had 
now to convince the ministry that he was zealous in the 
promotion of the interests of the Crown ; while, at the 
same time, if he would retain his own popularity, he must 
show the Assembly that he was true to his former princi- 
ples, and by no means required a compliance with the 
instructions, which, on the part of his majesty, he should 
present to them. "As his majesty's representative, he was 
obliged to urge their compliance with seeming sincerity 
and warmth ; but as James De Lancey, their old friend 
and best adviser, it was his real sentiment that they 
never ought to submit." The change in the administra- 
tion, however, was productive of one good result — that of 
infusing into the Assembly a desire to take active meas- 
ures for the defense of the province, new threatened with 
a desolating Indian war. Before the close of the session, 
an elaborate complaint to the Crown and a representation 
to the Board of Trade again- 1 Mr. Clinton were drawn up, 
and forwarded, through Mr. De Lancey, to the Home Gov- 
ernment. The Assembly was then prorogued to the first 
Tuesday of the following March — the Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor tenderly remarking, before they parted, that they 
" must be sensible they had not acted with his majesty's 
royal instructions." 



174 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

In the General Assembly, which met on the 15th of 
October, 1754, was first manifested the want of that har- 
mony which had hitherto been so flattering to Mr. 
De Lancey's administration. The reluctance of 
the Lieutenant-Governor at the congress to accede to the 
plan of union first awakened suspicion in the public mind 
that his sympathies were on the side of the Crown, and 
that the affection which he professed for the people was 
only a cover to his own ambition. There were also a few 
of Mr. Clinton's friends left, around whom were gathered 
a small opposition ; and the partiality which Mr. De Lan- 
cey had shown to his partisans since coming into jDOwer 
disgusted others and added to the discontent which was 
now quite general. To this was added another source of 
dissatisfaction — viz., the course he had taken in the found- 
ing of the college. To understand this latter point more 
clearly, it is necessary to glance at the origin of the con- 
troversy which was now raging fiercely, and which had 
already divided the Assembly into two parties. 

The province of New York at this period was divided 
in its religious views into two sects — the Episcopalian and 
the Presbyterian — the former being led by James De Lrm- 
cey and the latter by William Livingston. The Presby- 
terians, though outnumbering ten to one the Episcopalians, 
had not fairly recovered from the oppression of the early 
Governors, Fletcher and Cornbury ; and they would prob- 
ably have remained quiet had not the Episcopalians, with 
great lack of judgment, stirred up anew the embers of 
controversy. 

The people of New York, awakened to the importance 
of stimulating education, raised, by successive lotteries, 
the sum of three thousand four hundred and forty-three 
pounds for the purpose of founding a college ; and, in the 
fall of 1751, passed an act for placing the money thus 
raised in the hands of ten trustees. Of these, seven were 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 175 

Episcopalians, two belonged to the Dutch Church, and the 
tenth was William Livingston, an English Presbyterian. 
This manifest inequality in favor of the Church of Eng- 
land at once raised a well-founded alarm in the minds of 
the other sects, who very justly perceived in this an 
attempt to make the college entirely sectarian, by which 
only those in the Episcopal Church could participate in its 
benefits. Nor were they left long in suspense, for it soon 
became well understood that the majority of the trustees 
were to have the college under their control, and were 
intending shortly to petition the Lieutenant-Governor for 
a charter, in which it was to be expressly stipulated that 
no person out of the communion of the English Church 
should be eligible to the office of president. Far-seeing 
men uttered gloomy forebodings ; and a belief soon dif- 
fused itself through the minds of intelligent dissenters 
that this was only the foreshadowing of an attempt to 
introduce into the colony an established church. 

This idea was to a majority of the colonists repugnant 
in the extreme. The union of Church and State, with its 
tithes and taxes, was, like the " skeleton in armor," ever 
present to their imaginations, stimulating them to the 
utmost resistance. Mr. Livingston, therefore, partially 
with the view of exposing the evils of a college founded 
upon such sectarian principles, established a paper called 
the Independent Reflector. The articles which successively 
appeared from his pen on this subject were able and pun- 
gent. Under his lash the leaders of the church party 
winced ; and, in their agony, charged him with the design 
of breaking up the plan of any college whatever, and 
dreaded lest he should obtain a charter " for constituting 
a college on a basis the most catholic, generous, and free." 
These attacks of the church party were returned with 
redoubled violence, and the controversy had now risen to 
fever-heat. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 177 

But the efforts of Mr. Livingston and other able writ- 
ers to prevent the incorporation of King's (Columbia) 
College under these principles were fruitless ; and Mr. De 
Lance}- accordingly granted the charter. The Rev. Sam- 
uel Johnson, from Stratford, a worthy man, was called to 
the president's chair, and Mr. Livingston was appointed one 
of the governors, in the hope of silencing his opposition. 

The granting of this charter was so displeasing to the 
majority of the people, that the Lieutenant-Governor 
thought it advisable, in order to win back their former 
confidence, to urge at the present session the passage of 
several popular acts. Among them was one for supplying 
the garrison at Albany and the fortifications along the 
frontiers, and another for the discharge of the claims of the 
public creditors, especially the one of Colonel (afterward 
Sir William) Johnson. 

The granting of a charter to the new college, however, 
had not utterly crushed out opposition to its obnoxious 
principles. The House still had the disposal of the money 
which had been raised ; and the sectarians having a ma- 
jority, the trustees were ordered to report their transac- 
tions by virtue of the act under which they had been 
appointed. The latter, accordingly, on the 1st of Novem- 
ber handed in two separate reports, William Livingston 
reading one, and James Livingston and Mr. Nichol the 
other. After the two reports had been considered, the 
House unanimously resolved " that it would not consent 
to any disposition of the moneys raised by lottery for 
erecting a college within this colony in any other manner 
than by an act of the Legislature hereafter passed for that 
purpose." Permission at the same time was given Mr. 
Robert Livingston to bring in a bill for incorporating a 
college, which he introduced that same afternoon. 

The introduction of this bill astonished both Houses. 
It was vain to suppose that the council would give its 

23 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. ^79 

assent to an act so distasteful to its religious prejudices ; 
nor was the Lieutenant-Governor likely to directly con- 
tradict the letters-patent which, on behalf of the Crown, 
he himself had granted; while the Assembly, composed 
chiefly of dissenters, dared not reject it. In this predica- 
ment, a motion was made by Mr. Walton — prefaced with 
the remark " that the subject was of the utmost conse- 
quence to the people they represented, with the respect 
both to their civil and religious liberties " — that the con- 
sideration of the bill be deferred until the next session, 
by which time the sentiments of their constituents could 
be obtained. This motion was gladly seized upon as the 
only mode which presented an honorable retreat from the 
position they had so hastily assumed, and was therefore 
immediately carried. 

Thus, with the close of the year, practically terminated 
the college controversy, which, considered in itself, was 
not, perhaps, of much importance ; but which should not 
be omitted by the historian, who would show the progress 
which the citizens of New York were making toward that 
civil and religious freedom which they afterward attained. 

Sir Charles Hardy, the person whom the ministry 
had appointed to succeed Sir Danvers Osborne, arrived 
in New York in 1755. He was. like Clinton, an 

1 7 •") •> 

unlettered British admiral, and he had not landed 
long before it was apparent that, like him, also, he 
had not sufficient executive talent to govern without a 
leader. He therefore soon resigned himself into the hands 
of De Lancey, who thus again became Governor. Sir 
Charles Hardy, however, soon became tired of his inactive 
life ; and having, like a sensible man, asked and received 
permission to resign the government and return to his 
former profession, he hoisted his flag as Rear-Admiral of 
the Blue ; and leaving his government in the hands of the 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 181 

Lieutenant-Governor, De Lancey, he sailed on the 2d of 
July, 1757, to take command of an expedition against 
Lewisburg. 

The year before his departure, however, was signal- 
ized by an outrage upon the citizens of New York, which 
was long treasured up, and undoubtedly had its full weight 
in the catalogue of grievances which a few years later 
was to precipitate the colony into revolution. At this 
time the colonists were engaged in a bloody war with the 
Indians and French ; and Lord Loudon, who had been 
appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Army in America, 
arrived in New York in December, 1756, with 
twenty -four hundred men. His first act after 
landing was to insist that his officers should have free 
quarters upon the city. This, it will be remembered, 
was in direct opposition to the charter of liberties, 
framed by the first Assembly under Governor Dongan ; 
and the citizens, who saw in this an attempt to burden 
them with a standing army, became excited, and warmly 
pleaded their rights as Englishmen. But Loudon was 
not to be moved. Six men were billeted upon the 
brother of the Lieutenant-Governor — Oliver De Lancey. 
The latter threatened, if they were not removed, to leave 
the country. " I shall be glad of it," replied his lord- 
ship, at the same time quartering half-a-dozen more upon 
him, " for then the troops will have the whole house."* 
The Corporation insisted that free quarters were against 
the common law and the petition of rights. " God damn 

* Sir : Am just now informed that 2,400 men are arrived in New York. My 
Lord Loudon set a billetting them and sent only six to his old acquaintance, 
Mr. 01. De Lancey ; he zounzed, and blood-and-zounzed at the soldiers. This 
was told my lord ; he sent Mr. 01. half-a-dozen more. He sent my lord word if 
matters were to go so he would leave the country. My lord sent him word he 
would be glad of it ; then the troops would have the whole house. I really 
thought this so extraordinary, I must communicate it to you " — MS. Letter in 
the author's possession. Wm. Corry to Sir Wm. Johnson, Jan. 15th, 1757. 



182 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

my blood ! " exclaimed Loudon to Mayor Cruger, who 
presented the opinion of the Corporation, " if you do not 
billet my officers upon free quarters this day, I'll order all 
the troops in North America, under my command, and 
billet them myself upon this city ! " All argument being 
thus at an end, a subscription was raised for the quartering 
of the officers ; and Loudon, having rendered himself an 
object of detestation, went to Boston to breathe the same 
threats and to talk of the rigor which was to character- 
ize the next year's campaign. 

Three years after the departure of Governor Hardy, 
the City of New York was thrown into deep mourning 
by the death of its former Chief- Justice and present 
Lieutenant-Governor, James De Lancey. On the 30th 
of July, 1760, he died very suddenly from an 
attack of asthma, a malady to which he had for 
many years been subject. The day previous to his 
decease, he had visited Staten Island, and dined with 
Governor Morris, General Prevost, and several other distin- 
guished men of the day. Late in the evening he crossed 
the bay, seemingly laboring under great depression of 
spirits, and drove to his country-seat in the suburbs.* 
The next morning he was found by one of his little 
grandchildren t sitting in his library in the last agonies of 
death. 

By his violent political enemies Mr. De Lancey has 
been represented as a most unprincipled demagogue, while 
by his satellites he has been lauded to the skies as a dis- 
interested citizen and patriot. Neither of these views is 
correct; and the truth, as is generally the case, lies be- 

* On the east side of the Bowery, a little above Grand Street. 

f The little child that discovered him was the grandfather of the late 
Bishop De Lancey, of New York. Miss Booth, in her generally accurate and 
valuable work, states that James De Lancey was the greatgrandfather of the 
late bishop. Tins, however, is a mistake. He was his grandfatlier. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 183 

tween the two extremes. Mr. De Lancey, undoubtedly, 
was very ambitious and fond of notoriety; and his love, of 
power and the emoluments of office often led him into the 
commission of acts from which otherwise he would have 
shrunk. While he has been praised for his " broad and 
popular principles," and for his "political skill in suc- 
cessfully preserving to the Assembly the right of annual 
appropriations," yet he assumed this position more from 
a determination to displease Clinton, that he himself 
might rule, than from any love for the people. His 
course in 1754, in relation to the college charter, alien- 
ated his warmest friends; and although he subsequently 
bitterly repented of giving his sanction to the act of incor- 
poration, yet it was more on account of his loss of popu- 
larity than from any feeling of liberality. He was, how- 
ever, possessed of many amiable and noble qualities and 
private virtues; his disposition was social and genial, and 
he was withal a good classical scholar and a profound 
lawyer. His conduct upon the bench was generally irre- 
proachable ; and his decisions, in those cases in which the 
feelings of the political partisan did not enter, were char- 
acterized by fairness and discrimination. His death, 
occurring at this time, was a great loss to the prov- 
ince ; for, numerous as were his faults, he was a man of 
unquestioned ability. During his long administration 
he had made himself thoroughly conversant with Indian 
relations ; and since the departure of Clinton had heartily 
co-operated with Sir William Johnson, the Indian super- 
intendent, in all his efforts in that department. By his 
death the political complexion of the province underwent 
a material change; and Dr. Colden, by virtue of being 
president of the council, took the charge of the Govern- 
ment until the wishes of the ministry were known. 

Scarcely had the gloom resulting from the death of 
Mr. De Lancey been dispelled, when the city was again 



184 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

thrown into excitement — this time, however, from a 
pleasurable cause. In the October that succeeded the 
Lieutenant-Governor's death, General Amherst, covered 
with laurels on account of his conquest of Canada, visited 
New York. So overjoyed were the citizens at the suc- 
cessful termination of the protracted struggle, that it 
seemed as if they could not do too much for him, whom 
they regarded in the light of their preserver from the 
tomahawk and scalping-knife Accordingly, upon the 
arrival of Amherst, a public dinner was given to him, the 
freedom of the city presented in a gold box, salutes fired, 
and the whole city illuminated. Nor, as is too frequently 
the case with ovations, were these honors undeserved by 
their recipient, who was as modest as he was brave. 

Meanwhile, the work of improving the city rapidly 
advanced. In the spring of 17G1, new streets were opened 
and paved, among which was Partition Street, now Fulton. 
At the same time the first theater was opened 
in Beekman Street, under the patronage of the 
Lieutenant-Governor, although the project was strenu- 
ously opposed by the Assembly as tending to vitiate and 
lower the standard of public morals. " During this year, 
also, the old plan of lighting the streets by lanterns sus- 
pended from the windows was definitely abandoned ; and 
public lamps and lamp-posts were erected in the principal 
streets, and lighted at the public expense." Laws were 
also passed regulating the prices of provisions, some of 
which the same author gives as affording an idea of the 
prices at that time. Beef was sold at four pence half- 
penny per pound; pork, five pence half-penny; veal, six 
pence ; butter, fifteen pence ; milk, six coppers per quart ; 
and a loaf of bread, of a pound and twelve ounces, four 
coppers. 

In June, 1764, a light-house was erected on Sandy 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY, 



185 



Hook and lighted for the first time. Two ferries were 
also established the same year ; one between Paulus Hook 
(Jersey City) and New York, and another between ^^ 
Staten Island and Bergen. At the same time the 
mail between New York and Philadelphia was changed 
from once a fortnight to twice a week, the distance be- 
tween the two cities being made in three days. 

At an early period in New York the mails, now of 
such vital importance, were a very insignificant affair. 







^ISp^ 



SANDY HOOK, FROM THE LIGHT-HOUSES. 

Even since the American Revolution a saddle-bag boy on 
horseback, without any protection, carried the mail three 
times a week between New York and Philadelphia. Peo- 
ple wondered at seeing the bags next placed upon a sulky; 
and were lost in amazement when a four-horse stage be- 

24 



186 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

came necessary for the increasing load and bulk. Now, a 
large car, several times a day, is found insufficient for the 
amount of mail matter that passes between those two 
cities ; and instead of there being, as formerly, only a few 
straggling letters, two hundred and fifty thousand postage- 
stamps are, on an average, daily canceled, and that is a 
representation of the number of domestic letters delivered 
at the post-office every twenty-four hours.* Then the post 
went and returned by way of " Blazing Star," Staten Isl- 
and. In process of time, several new routes were opened 
to Philadelphia. One crossed the bay to Staten Island 
in a perogue, commonly called a periagua, a little open boat 
with lee-boards, and steered by one man. Reaching the 
island, the traveler proceeded to the ferry at "Arthur 
Rolls' " Sound, crossed in a scow to New Jersey, and 
shortly reached the " Blazing Star," near Woodbridge. 
Journeying slowly to the Raritan River, New Brunswick 
was reached by a scow, and in the same manner Trenton, 
on the Delaware, until, by the third or fourth day, the 
"City of Brotherly Love" made its appearance. Another 
route advertised a commodious " stage-boat" to start with 
goods and passengers from the City Hall Slip (Coenties) 
twice a week, for Perth Amboy ferry, and thence by 
stage-wagon to Cranberry and Burlington, from which 
point a stage-boat continued the line to Philadelphia ; this 
trip generally required three days. This was long before 
the days of steam-boats. These " stage-boats " were 
small sloops, sailed by a single man and boy, or two men ; 
and passing "outside," as it is still called, by the Narrows 
and through the " Lower Bay," these small passage-ves- 
sels, at times, were driven out to sea, thus oftentimes caus- 



* One comparative statement more. The City of New York is divided into 
twelve postal stations, each one having its distinct officer and clerks. Station 
A, situated in the heart of New York, does a larger business than the city of 
Buffalo, New Haven, Hartford, Hudson, or Troy. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 187 

ing vexatious delays. In very stormy weather, the " inside 
route," through the Kills, was chosen. The most common 
way to Philadelphia, however, was to cross the North 
River in a sail-boat, and then the Passaic and Hackensack 
by scows, reaching the " Quaker City" by stages in about 
three days. But these passages had their perils. The 
"Blazing Star Inn" (sign of a comet) lay four or five 
miles from the Staten Island ferry ; and Baron De Kalb, 
then a colonel, crossing over here in January, 1768, was 
the only one of nine passengers not frozen so as to lose 
life or limb. The open scow sank on a sand-bank and 
left the whole party exposed all night. When rescued, 
he alone refused to be warmed by the fire, but placing his 
feet and legs in cold water, went to bed and arose uninjured. 
One of his comrades died on the scow before succor arrived. 
In 1756, the first stage started between New York and 
Philadelphia— three days through. In 1765, a second 
stage was advertised for Philadelphia — a covered 
Jersey wagon — at two pence a mile. The next 
year another line was begun, called the " Flying Machine," 
with good wagons, seats on springs, time two days, and 
fare two pence a mile, or twenty shillings through. John 
Mersereau, at the " Blazing Star," " notifies that persons 
may go from New York to Philadelphia and back in five 
days, remaining in Philadelphia two nights and one day; 
fare, twenty shillings through. There will be two wagons 
and two drivers, and four sets of horses. The passengers 
will lodge at Paulus Hook Ferry the night before, to start 
thence the next morning early." * 

* In this connection it may be mentioned that, during the year 175G, the first 
British packet-boats commenced sailing from New York to Falmouth, each let- 
ter carried " to pay four-penny weight of silver." It is also worth noticing here 
that the earliest voyage to China from New York was made during the year 
1785, in tlie ship Empress, Captain Greene. The same year Captain Dean per- 
formed this identical voyage in an Albany sloop— a feat at that day more remark 
able than the sailing of the little " Red, White, and Blue " across the Atlantic 
a short time asro. 



1T65. 



188 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

During the year 1785, the first stages began their trips 
between New York and Albany, with four horses, at four 
pence a mile, on the east side of the North River, under 
a special act of the Legislature, lor ten years. Ten years 
afterward this line was extended as far as Whitestone, just 
beyond old Fort Schuyler (Utica).* 

What a contrast between that day and our own ! Then 
news from England five months old was fresh and racy. 
Now we must have it in two hours, and then grumble at 
the length of time taken by the Atlantic cable to convey 
the intelligence. Then news seven days old from New 
York to Boston was swift enough for an express. Noiv, if 
we cannot obtain the news from Washington in less than 
the same number of minutes, we become almost frantic, 
and talk of starting new telegraph companies. 



* On the opposite page will be found a facsimile of an advertisement, cut 
out of an old newspaper kindly given me by the Hon. Theodore Faxton, of 
Utica, N. Y. Mr. Faxton is the son-in-law of " Jason Parker." 



PARKER'* 



Mail Stage, 

From Wbitefiown to Canajobarrie. 




fattMNi 

THE Mail leaves Wbiteflo-ujn every 
Monday and T Bur/day , at tnuo o'clock 
P. M. and proceeds to Old Fort Schuyler the 
famt evening ; ■next morning ftarts at feur 
o'clocJt, and arrives at Canujoharrie in the 
evening ; exchanges pajfengtrs <witb the Al 
bany and Cooperjfovun Jlages, and the next 
day returns ts Old Fort Schuyler 

Fare for pajlengers, T«ic» Dollars ; way 
paj/engers, Four Pence per mile; 14/A. bag- 
1*8* gratis ; i$o<wt. rated the faint as a 
pajenger. 

Seats may be had by applying at the Pojf- 
Ojfice t Wbitejlonun, at the houft of the fub- 
criber. Old Fort Schuyler, or at Captain 
Rto/^f, Canajobarrie 

JASON PARKER. 

Auguft, 1795. 8/ 



CHAPTER VI. 

It will be recollected that, on the death of Mr. De 
Lancey, the Government had devolved on Dr. Cadwal- 
lader Colden, as president of the council, until the wishes 
of the ministry could be ascertained. Shortly after his 
first speech to the Assembly on the 22d of October, 1760, 
news arrived of the death of George the Second and the 
accession of his grandson ; and as it was the unanimous 
opinion of the provincial council that the demise of the 
King dissolved the Assembly, writs were issued for a new 
one, returnable upon the 3d of March, 1761. Mean- 
while, various were the conjectures respecting the 
name of the future governor. At one time rumor gave the 
gubernatorial chair to General Gage ; again the public 
were confident that Thomas Pownal would be the fortu- 
nate man. Some few suggested Colden, and others Gen- 
eral Monckton. All surmises were at length set at rest. 
Pownal received the Governorship of Jamaica, Gage 
remained at Montreal, and Colden, having been appointed 
Lieutenant-Governor, announced to the Assembly that 
his majesty had been pleased " to distinguish the services 
of Major-General Monckton by constituting him his Cap- 
tain-General and Governor-in-Chief of the Province." 
The new Governor, however, did not long occupy the 
gubernatorial chair, for, preferring the excitement of 
arms to the cares and troubles of office, he, like Governor 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 191 

Hardy, requested to be allowed to resume his old profes- 
sion. Accordingly, having produced his commission to 
the council and taken the oaths of office, he sailed from 
New York on the last day of November, 1761, leaving 
the government in the hands of Doctor Colden. 

The administration of Doctor Colden was at first 
marked by no event of special moment, and the inter- 
course between himself and his Assembly, if we except 
the slight opposition against the theater in Beekinan 
Street, was of the most amiable character. But this 
calm was to be of short duration; for, shortly after re- 
ceiving his commission of Lieutenant-Governor, he was 
instrumental in an act which set not only the Assembly, 
but the whole province, in a blaze. As by the death of 
Mr. De Lancey the seat of Chief-Justice had become 
vacant, a general wish was expressed by the community 
that the vacancy should at once be filled. The three 
remaining judges, Horsmanden, Chambers, and Jones, hav- 
ing doubts as to their ability to issue processes under their 
old commissions since the death of the King, likewise 
urged the Lieutenant-Governor to appoint a successor 
without delay. Colden, however, was more concerned 
for his own and his family's advancement than for the 
welfare of the colony. In the same letter in which he 
announced to the Lords of Trade the death of De Lancey, 
he recommended his eldest son for the seat at the 
council-board, made vacant at the Lieutenant-Governor's 
death; and in the same fawning and grasping spirit he 
now desired the Earl of Halifax, the Colonial Secretary 
of State, to nominate a Chief-Justice. The result was, 
not only the nomination, but the actual appointment of 
Benjamin Pratt, a Boston lawyer, to the seat, not, as had 
been usual before the death of his late majesty, " during 
good behaviour," but " at the pleasure of the King." 

The appointment in this manner, and at this time, 



192 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

was peculiarly unfortunate. The sister colony of Massa- 
chusetts was now writhing under the "writs of assist- 
ance," which the British ministry had so recklessly deter- 
mined to force upon the colonies. These " writs " had 
been requested by the custom-house officers to enable 
them the better to enforce the revenue. They were in 
effect search-warrants, and whoever held them might 
with impunity break open a citizen's house and violate 
the sanctity of his dwelling. The inhabitants were justly 
incensed at this exercise of arbitrary power, and the 
more so, as they saw no disposition on the part of those 
in authority to resist this infringement upon their liber- 
ties. Bernard, the Governor of Massachusetts, scrupled 
not to become the tool of the Earl of Egremont, Pitt's 
successor, and boldly declared himself in favor of adopt- 
ing the odious plan of the Crown for increasing the 
revenue. Hutchinson, the Chief-Justice of the province, 
was equally subservient to the royal authority. An 
opportunity, however, soon came in which the temper of 
the people found vent. A petition having been presented 
to the Superior Court by the officers of the customs, that 
" writs of assistance " might ensue, the question was 
argued at length in February (1761) before the Chief- 
Justice and his four associate justices. Jeremiah Gridley, 
on behalf of the Crown, argued for the legality of the 
writ, on the ground that as the writ was allowed to the 
revenue-officers in England, to refuse the same powers to 
the colonial officers would be to deny that " the Parlia- 
ment of Great Britain is the sovereign legislature of the 
British empire." 

The fearless and impulsive James Otis, who had 
resigned his office as Advocate-General, that, untrammeled, 
he might argue this case against the Crown, appeared for 
the people of Boston. " These writs," he exclaimed, 
" are the worst instruments of arbitrary power, the most 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 193 

destructive of English liberty and the fundamental prin- 
ciples of law." With impassioned eloquence, he showed 
to the court the nature of these writs. " In the first 
place," he said, " the writ is universal, being directed to 
all and singular justices, sheriffs, constables, and all other 
officers and subjects, so that, in short, it is directed to 
every subject in the King's dominions. Every one with 
this writ may be a tyrant ; if this commission be legal, a 
tyrant in a legal manner. Also may control, imprison, 
or murder any one within the realm. In the next place, 
it is perpetual. A man is accountable to no person for 
his doings. *•, * * In the third place, a person 
with this writ, in the daytime may enter all houses, 
shops, &c, at will, and command all to assist him. Now, 
one of the most essential branches of English liberty is 
the freedom of one's house. A man's house is his castle, 
and whilst he is quiet he is as well guarded as a prince 
in his castle. This writ, if it should be declared legal, 
would totally annihilate this privilege. Custom-house 
officers may enter our houses when they please. We are 
commanded to permit their entry. Their menial servants 
may enter, may break locks, bars, and everything in 
their way, and whether they break through malice or 
revenge, no man, no court may inquire. Bare suspicion 
without oath is sufficient ; and," continued he, " I am 
determined to sacrifice estate, ease, health, applause, and 
even life, to the sacred calls of my country in opposition 
to a kind of power which cost one King of England his 
head and another his throne ; and to my dying day I will 
oppose, with all the power and faculties that God has 
given me, all such instruments of slavery on the one 
hand and villainy on the other ! " 

At the next term of the court, the writ of assistance 
was granted, but such was the feeling of the people that 
the custom-house officers, although having the writs in 

25 



194 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CTTY. 

their pockets, dared not in a single instance carry them 
into execution. But although the arguments of Otis 
failed to procure a decision in favor of the people, yet 
they did not die within the walls of the court-house. 
Caught up by his hearers, they were borne, as if on the 
wind, throughout the length and breadth of the land. " I 
do say in the most solemn manner," writes Mr. Adams, 
" that Mr. Otis's oration against writs of assistance 
breathed into this nation the breath of life." 

With these stirring appeals of James Otis ringing in 
their ears, it may readily be supposed that the people of 
New York were in no mood for this further encroach- 
ment upon their liberties. "To make the King's Avill," 
said they, "the term of office, is to make the bench of 
judges the instrument of the royal prerogative." Cham- 
bers, Horsmanden, and Jones refused to act longer unless 
they could hold their commissions during good behavior. 
Champions at once arose to do battle for the people. 
Conspicuous among these were William Livingston, John 
Morin Scott, and William Smith, all prominent lawyers 
and vigorous thinkers and writers; and they protested 
through the public prints against this attempt to 
render the judiciary dependent upon the Crown. 
Nor were their efforts entirely fruitless, for in the an- 
swer of the Assembly on the 17th of December to the 
request of Dr. Colden that the usual salary of three hun- 
dred pounds to the Chief-Justice should be increased, it 
was resolved " that as the salaries allowed for the judges 
of the Supreme Court have been and still appear to be 
sufficient to engage gentlemen of the first figure, both as 
to capacity and fortune, in the colony, to accept of these 
offices, it would be highly improper to augment the salary 
of Chief-Justice on this occasion;" nor would they allow 
even the usual salary, unless the commissions of the Chief- 
Justice and the other judges were granted during good 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. J 95 

behavior. To this Colden refused to accede ; and Chief- 
Justice Pratt, having served several terms without a 
salary, was finally reimbursed out of his majesty's quit- 
rents of the province. 

Thus were the people of New York following in the 
wake of their Puritan neighbors. Colden himself, as if 
he had some glimmerings of the future, began to doubt 
the result. " For some years past," he wrote to the 
Board of Trade, " three popular lawyers, educated in Con- 
necticut, who have strongly imbibed the independent 
principles of that country, calumniate the administration 
in every exercise of the prerogative, and get the applause 
of the mass by propagating the doctrine that all authority 
is derived from the people." 

It was in the fall of 1763 that George Grenville and 
Lord North first devised the plan of raising a revenue by 
the sale of stamps to the colonists. Grenville, how- 
ever, hesitated long before pressing this measure ; 
and it was not until the 22d of March, of this year, that 
the Stamp Act passed, and received the signature of the 
King. The act declared that thenceforth no legal instru- 
ment should possess any validity in the colonies unless it 
was stamped by the Government.* Long before the pas- 
sage of the act, the rumor that such a project was even 
meditated by the ministry produced a universal outburst 
of indignation. If Parliament wished to raise any sum, 
said the colonists, let them employ the usual method of 
writing circular letters to the provinces, requesting sup- 
plies according to the ability of each. When thus applied 
to heretofore, the King had never found them remiss, but, 
on the contrary — as their loyal obedience to these requi- 
sitions during the last war had fully shown — they had 

* " By this act, a ream of bail bonds stumped was £100 ; a ream of common 
printed ones before, was £15 ; a ream of stamped policies of insurance was 
£190 ; of common ones, without stamps, £20." — Bradford, Mass., i, 12. 



196 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

always responded with alacrity. Taxation, however, with- 
out representation in Parliament was tyranny to which 
they would not submit. These views were advocated with 
great power by James Otis in a series of pamphlets ; and 
the public prints teemed with similar discussions, all of 
which were read with care and reflection. The Assem- 
blies of Virginia and New York especially, by their pro- 
tests, took firm ground against the passage of the act ; but 
the petition of the former body was not received in Eng- 
land until it was too late, while that of the latter was so 
intemperate in its expressions against the newly-assumed 
pretensions of the Parliament that the agent, Mr. Charles, 
was unable to find any member of that body bold enough 
to present it. 

It may, therefore, readily be seen, that if the mere 
intimation that such an odious measure was in contem- 
plation, produced so much solicitude, the passage of the 
act itself was not calculated to allay the growing appre- 
hensions of the people. But it was no sudden ebullition 
of indignation that first manifested itself. Indeed, so 
amazed were the colonists at the presumption of Parlia- 
ment that when the news was first received their feelings 
were too deep for utterance. Hutchinson, the Chief-Jus- 
tice of Massachusetts, mistaking this for submission, has- 
tened to write to the ministry that " his countrymen were 
waiting, not to consider if they must submit to a stamp- 
duty, but to know when its operation was to commence." 
He knew not that this calm was but the stillness which 
preceded the tornado that was to sweep with such deso- 
lating fury throughout the land ! He was shortly unde- 
ceived. Mutterings began to be heard in every province, 
which, in New England and New York, soon grew into 
acts of violence. On the 14th of August, Andrew Oliver,, 
the brother-in-law of the Chief-Justice, who had received 
the appointment of stamp-distributer for Massachusetts, 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 197 

was, together with Lord Bute, suspended in effigy from a 
tree in one of the streets of Boston. In reply to the com- 
mand of the Chief- Justice to take down those figures, the 
sheriff gave a flat refusal ; and the council of the province 
likewise declined to interfere. That same night, the mob, 
taking the images down, carried them to the newly- 
erected Stamp-office, which they immediately razed. Oli- 
ver's dwelling was next assailed, the windows and furniture 
demolished, and the effigies burned on Fort Hill. The 
next day, Oliver resigned ; but he was obliged, the same 
evening, to make a public recantation at a bonfire which 
the populace had kindled. But, having once given vent 
to their long pent-up exasperation, they did not stop here. 
Urged on by a popular preacher, Jonathan Mayhew by 
name, who had taken for his text the previous day, " I 
would they were even cut oft* which trouble you," they 
destroyed, on the 26th, the records and files of the Court 
of Admiralty, and, breaking into the house of Hallowell, 
the Comptroller of Customs, demolished the furniture, and 
freely drank of the choice wines in the cellar. To their just 
anger were now added the fumes of liquor ; and proceeding 
forthwith to the residence of Hutchinson, they tore the 
paintings from the walls, destroyed the plate, and scattered 
his large and valuable library of books and manuscripts 
to the winds ; nor did they depart until the interior of 
the building, even to the partition-walls, was completely 
demolished. Happily, Hutchinson and his innocent fam- 
ily, having received timely notice of their danger, had 
escaped before the arrival of the rioters — otherwise, the 
crime of murder might have been added to these violent 
and disgraceful proceedings. 

In Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, 
the popular indignation showed itself in similar demon- 
strations, though not of so violent a character. The effect, 
however, in those provinces was the same ; each of the 



J93 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

stamp-distributers being forced to resign to save himself 
from odium, if not from death. 

Meantime, the Assembly of Massachusetts resolved, 
on the 6th of June, that " it was highly expedient there 
should be a meeting, as soon as might be, of committees 
from the Houses of Representatives or Burgesses in the 
several colonies, to consult on the present circumstances 
of the colonies, and the difficulties to which they were and 
must be reduced, and to consider of a general congress — 
to be held at New York the first Tuesday of October." 
To this invitation the colonies heartily responded, and in 
the convention, held at the time and place designated, 
they were all represented, except New Hampshire, Vir- 
ginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. The three latter, 
however, although prevented by their Governors, by con- 
tinued adjournments, from sending delegates, signified by 
letters their willingness to acquiesce in whatever meas- 
ures the convention might adopt ; so, also, wrote New 
Hampshire. Lieutenant-Governor Colden, who had from 
the beginning pronounced the convention unconstitutional 
and unlawful, likewise endeavored, by successive adjourn- 
ments, to prevent the Assembly of New York from elect- 
ing delegates. But an Assembly that had driven Clinton 
from his chair, and had successfully fought through so 
many years against a permanent support, was not to be 
thus easily foiled ; and a committee appointed by 
them in October, 1764, to correspond with their 
sister colonies upon recent acts of Parliament in relation 
to trade, now took their seats in the Congress as the rep- 
resentatives of the people of New York. 

Timothy Ruggles, who had been sent by Bernard, the 
Governor of Massachusetts, to thwart the patriotic efforts 
of his colleagues, was chosen president of the Congress, and 
John Cotton, clerk. No time was lost. Committees were 
immediately appointed to draft petitions to Parliament. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 199 

having for their burden the Stamp Act ; and, after a har- 
monious session of fourteen days, the convention dis- 
solved, having adopted a declaration of rights, a petition 
to the King, and a memorial to both Houses of Parliament 
— the latter being drawn by James Otis. 

As before remarked, the people of New York were 
among the most bitter opponents of the Stamp Act. 
While the riots were going on in Boston, the act itself 
was reprinted, and hawked about the streets of New York 
city, as " The folly of England, and ruin of America." 
Secret organizations styling themselves the " Sons of Lib- 
erty" met to discuss plans of resistance. Warned by the 
example of his brother appointees in the neighboring colo- 
nies, McEvers, the stamp-distributer, resigned. General 
Gage, at the solicitation of Golden, ordered down, in July, 
from Crown Point, a company of the Sixtieth regiment, 
for the defense of Fort George, the guns of which were 
remounted, new ordnance ordered, and the magazine 
replenished with a bountiful supply of ammunition. On 
the arrival of the first cargo of stamps in the harbor, 
toward the end of October, placards were posted up in the 
streets and at the Merchants' Coffee-house, of which the 
following is a copy : 

"PRO PATRIA. 

" TJie first man that either distributes or makes use of stampt paper, let Mm 
take care of his house, person, and effects. 

"VOX POPUIX 
" WE DARE." 

Terrified at signs he could not misunderstand, the 
Lieutenant-Governor had the stamps conveyed, for greater 
security, to the fort, and in great trepidation summoned 
the members of his privy council for their advice. But 
notwithstanding he sent repeated messages, and notwith- 
standing, also, that seven members were in the city, only 
three (Horsmanden, Smith, and Reid) responded to his 



200 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

call, and they declined giving any advice unless there was 
a fuller Board. In this state of affairs, nothing was left 
to Colden but to shut himself up in the fort and await the 
result. He was not long in suspense. 

On the 1st of November, the day appointed for the 
Stamp Act to go into operation, the popular indignation, 
which had been so long smoldering, burst forth. Early 
in the evening, the Sons of Liberty, numbering several 
thousand, appeared before the fort and demanded the 
stamps. On being refused, they proceeded to the open 
fields — a portion of which is now the Park — and, having 
erected a gibbet, they hanged the Lieutenant-Governor in 
effigy, and suspended by his side a figure, holding in his 
hand a boot, representing Lord Bute.* The images, after 
hanging some little time, were taken down and carried, 
together with the scaffold, in a torch-light procession to 
the gates of the fort. Having in vain knocked on the 
gates for admission, the mob broke into Colden's carriage- 
house, brought forth the family-coach, placed inside of it 
the two effigies, and, having again paraded them around 
the city, returned to within one hundred yards of the fort- 
gate, and hanged the figures upon a second gallows erected 
for that purpose. A bonfire was then made of part of the 
wooden fence, which, at that time, surrounded the Bowl- 
ing Green ; and the effigies, together with the Lieutenant- 
Governor's coach, a single-horse chair, two sleighs, and 
several light vehicles, were cast into the flames and 

* Colden, it is true, in a letter under date of November 5th to Secretary 
Conway, says that the image suspended by the side of his effigy was intended 
to represent the devil, in which Bancroft follows him. In a manuscript letter, 
however, now before me, written by Alexander Colden, his son, to Sir William 
Johnson, a month after, and when the facts, therefore, could be better ascer- 
tained, the excitement having partially subsided, the writer says that the 
second image was designed for Lord Bute. The boot has now significance as a 
rebxis of Lord Bute which before it had not. " His Lordship's [John Stewart, 
Earl of Bute] established type with the mob was a jack -boot, a wretched pun 
on his Christian name and title." — Mucaulay's Essay on the Earl of Chatham. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 201 

entirely consumed. While the flames were lighting up 
the black muzzles of the guns of the fort, another party, 
having spiked the cannon on the Battery, proceeded to 
the house of Major James, an artillery officer, who had 
made himself especially obnoxious by his having aided in 
putting the fort in a suitable posture for defense, and, 
having burned everything of value, returned in triumph, 
bringing with them the colors of the Royal Artillery 
Regiment. 

When McEvers resigned, Colden had sneered ; but even 
he was now compelled to give way. The day after the 
riot, he caused a large placard to be posted up, signed by 
Goldsbrow Banyar, the deputy-secretary of the council, 
stating that he should have nothing more to do with the 
stamps, but would leave them with Sir Henry Moore, 
Bart., who was then on his way from England to assume 
the government. This declaration, however, did not 
satisfy the Sons of Liberty. Through their leader, Isaac 
Sears, they insisted that the stamped paper should be 
immediately delivered into their hands, threatening, in 
case of a refusal, to storm the fort where it was deposited. 
The Common Council, alarmed at the uncontrollable fury 
of the mob, and fearing an effusion of blood, added, like- 
wise, their solicitation that the stamps might be deposited 
in the City Hall. In answer to this latter request, the 
cause of the dispute was delivered up, after considerable 
negotiation, to the corporation — the Board giving a 
pledge to make good all the stamps that might be lost. 

But if the spirit of the mob could not be subdued, it 
might at least be guided. On the 6th of November, a 
meeting of the more conservative citizens was called, and 
Sears, with four others,* was authorized to correspond 
with several colonies upon the new and alarming feature 

* These were John Lamb, Uershoru Mott, William Wiley, and Thomas 
Robinson. 

26 



202 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

of the prerogative of Parliament. The committee thus 
appointed entered into their work with zeal, the fruits of 
which soon became apparent. A resolution, emanating 
from New York and adopted by the other colonies, directed 
the English merchants to ship no more goods to America, 
and declared that no more goods coming from England 
should be sold on commission in the colonies after the 
first day of January, 1766. Nor did the patriotism of the 
people end here. The wearing of cloth of British manu- 
facture was dispensed with, coarse home-spun garments 
taking its place. Marriages were no longer performed 
by licenses, upon which the Stamp Act had now laid 
duty, but were solemnized by being proclaimed in church. 
Everywhere resistance to kingly oppression was the 
watch-word. 

The new Governor, Sir Henry Moore, Bart., who had 
been appointed, in June, to succeed Major-General Monck- 
ton, arrived in New York the beginning of November, 
1765, after a tedious passage of ten weeks. When 
he first landed, he was disposed to assume a haughty 
tone in relation to the Stamp Act. The Corporation 
offered him the freedom of the city in a gold box ; but he 
refused to accept it, unless upon stamped paper. The 
custom-house cleared vessels, but the men-of-war ran out 
their guns and refused to allow them to leave the harbor, 
unless they produced a certificate from the Governor that 
no stamps were to be had. This the latter declined to 
give, and the vessels remained at the wharves. The spec- 
tacle, however, of Colden quaking with fear in the fort, 
and the judicious advice of his council, soon convinced 
him of the folly of any attempt to carry the act into 
execution; and, before his first meeting with the Assem- 
bly, he openly announced that he had suspended his 
power to execute the Stamp Act. To still further appease 
the people, he dismantled the fort, very much to the 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 203 

disgust of the Lieutenant-Governor, who, not having 
been consulted, retired in chagrin to his country-seat at 
Flushing. 

Owing to the successive adjournments by Colden, the 
General Assembly met, for the first time this year, on the 
13th of November. Only fourteen members, however, 
answering to their names, the speaker announced the 
appointment of Sir Henry Moore to the government, and 
adjourned the Assembly to the 19th. 

The severest test, perhaps, of public opinion at this 
time, is to be found in the Governor's opening address, 
which was brief and general, and contained not the 
slightest allusion to the existing troubles. The answer 
of the House was equally guarded ; each party seeming 
to be averse to broach a topic that was so unpleasant 
to the other. But if the Assembly were unwilling to 
allude in their address to that which was now upon every 
mind, they showed no indisposition to handle it among 
themselves. Among their first resolutions was one, not 
only approving the action of the committee in meeting 
with the Congress in October, but tendering them, also, 
their warmest thanks for the part which they had taken 
in the deliberations of that body. In connection with 
this resolution, they further resolved, nemine contradicente, 
" that for obtaining relief from the operation and execu- 
tion of the Act of Parliament called the Stamp Act, hum- 
ble petitions be presented to his Majesty, the House of 
Lords, and the House of Commons, as nearly similar to 
those drawn up by the late Congress as the particular 
circumstances of the colony will admit of." A committee 
was therefore appointed to draw up the three petitions, 
which, signed by William Nicholl, the speaker, were 
forwarded, in the name of the House, to Charles and John 
Sargeant, the colony's agents in London. 

But the action of the Assembly did not keep pace with 



204 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

the public requirements ; at least so thought the Sons of 
Liberty. On the 26th, a sealed letter was handed by an 
unknown person to Mr. Lott, clerk of the House, directed 
" to mr. lott, merch't. in new york," and ran as follows: 

" On receiving you are to read the in closed in the open Assembly of this 
Province New York as you are dark and whare of fail not on your perrel. 

(Signed) " freedom." 

The inclosed letter was directed " To the General 
Assembly of the Province of New York" and was in the 
following words : 

" Gentlemen of the House of Representatives, you are to Consider what is 
to be Done first Drawing of as much money from the Lieut. Governor's Sal- 
lery as will Repare the fort & on Spike the Guns on the Battery & the nex a 
Repeal of the Gunning Act & then there will be a good Militia but not before 
& also as you are asetting you may Consider of the Building Act as it is to 
take place nex yeare which it Cannot for there is no supply of Some Sort of 
materials Required this Law is not Ground on Reasons but there is a great 
many Reasons to the Contrary so Gentlemen we desire you will Do what lays 
in vour power for the Good of the public but if you take this ill be not so 
Conceited as to Say or think that other People know nothing about Govern- 
ment you have made their laws and say they are Right but they are Rong and 
take a way Leberty. Oppressions of your make Gentlemen make us Sons of 
Liberty think you are not for the Public Liberty this is the General Opinion of 
the People for this part of Your Conduct. 

"1765 " by order " ign'd, one & all. 

" Nov'r 26 

" FREEDOM." 

Both of these letters — which, by the way, bear on 
their lace unmistakable evidence of their being designedly 
written in this illiterate manner, probably for the greater 
disguise* — were laid before the House by the clerk, who 
dared not refuse. But the Assembly were not disposed 
to have any such gratuitous advice ; nor was their patriot- 
ism yet attuned to the same accord with that of the writer. 
However much, moreover, they might be disposed, them- 
selves, to criticise the unpopular Colden, they did not 
choose to be instructed by the ironical suggestion in rela- 

* The entire absence of punctuation in the same letter, with the correct 
abbreviations of Sign'd and Nov'r, and the correct spelling of the more diffi- 
cult words, show clearly the marks of design. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 205 

tion to the Lieutenant-Governor's salary and the spiked 
guns. They therefore resolved that the said letters were 
rebellious, scandalous, and seditious; that they were 
designed to inflame the minds of the good people of the 
colony against their representatives ; and that an address 
should be presented to the Governor requesting him to 
offer a reward of fifty pounds for their author or authors, 
that they might be brought to "condign punishment;" 
pledging themselves, at the same time, to provide the 
means of defraying the above reward. 

On the 3d of December, the Governor, by Mr. Banyar, 
sent down a message to the House, in which the latter 
was informed that by the Mutiny Act, passed during the 
last session of Parliament, the expense of furnishing the 
King's troops in America with quarters and other neces- 
saries, was to be defrayed by the several colonies. In con- 
sequence thereof, the Commander-in-Chief had demanded 
that provision be made for the troops, whether quartered 
within or marching through the province ; and it was now 
requested to make provision accordingly. 

This request was at this time exceedingly inopportune. 
It involved a question which, in Lord Loudon's time — 
when the country was engaged in a disastrous war, and 
when, therefore, there was a seeming necessity for such 
provision — had been productive of ill feeling, and almost 
of riots. It may readily be seen, therefore, that when no 
such necessity existed, and when the public mind was in 
such an excited state, the Assembly were in no mood to 
comply. The message w T as accordingly referred to a com- 
mittee of the whole House, of which Robert II. Livingston 
was the chairman. On the 19th, they reported against it, 
on the following grounds : that when his majesty's forces 
were quartered in barracks belonging to the King, they 
were always furnished with necessaries without any 
expense to the counties in which they were quartered ; 



206 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

and that if any expense were necessary for quartering 
troops on their march, and supplying them with what was 
required by the act, the House would consider thereof 
after the expense was incurred. Sir Henry Moore was 
too prudent a man to press the matter further ; and hav- 
ing satisfied his duty to the Crown by the formal demand 
for quarters, he allowed the matter to drop for the present. 

The Sons of Liberty were still in the ascendant. The 
last week in November, two hundred of them crossed over 
to Flushing, and compelled the Maryland stamp-distrib- 
uter, who had fled thither for safety, to sign a resignation 
of his office. In December, ten boxes of stamps were 
seized on their arrival in port, and consumed in a bonfire. 
" We are in a shocking situation at present," wrote Alex- 
ander Colden to Sir William Johnson, with whom the 
former was on terms of intimacy, " and God knows how 
it will end. Its not safe for a person to speak, for there 
is no knowing friend from foe." 

Opposition to the Stamp Act still continued. In Jan- 
uary, 1766, a committee from the Sons of Liberty waited 
upon six persons in Albany, and requested them to 
take an oath that they would not accept the office 
of stamp-distributer. All but Henry Van Schaack, the 
Albany postmaster, having complied, the mob went to the 
latter's house, a little below the city, broke the windows, 
furniture, and the piazza, and taking his pleasure-sleigh 
into town, consumed it in a bonfire. Alarmed at these 
demonstrations, Van Schaack took the required oath, and 
the mob dispersed. 

In New York city, the committee (Isaac Sears, chair- 
man) were still active. Having ascertained by their 
secret agents in Philadelphia that a merchant, Lewis 
Pintard, had sent to that city a Mediterranean pass and 
a bond on stamped paper, they waited upon the merchant, 
and also upon the naval officer who had given the pass, 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 207 

on the 12th of January; and, compelling them to appear on 
the common, forced them to swear, before a crowd of eight 
thousand people, that the passes which they had signed 
and delivered were not stamped, to their knowledge. Not 
satisfied, however, with this declaration, the committee 
conducted them to the Coffee-house, before which a bonfire 
had been kindled, and obliged Pintard to commit the 
passes to the flames with his own hands. On the follow- 
ing day, Governor Moore, who, being of a timid and ami- 
able nature, had a dread of becoming unpopular, sent for 
one of the committee, and said, in the course of the con- 
versation, that he hoped the " gentlemen, his associates," 
did not suspect him of being cognizant of the Mediterra- 
nean passes. Upon being informed that they did not, the 
Governor further stated that he had solicited this inter- 
view to assure the Sons of Liberty that, not only was he 
ignorant of that transaction, but that he would have 
nothing to do with any stamps whatever. 

Alarmed at the rapid growth of republican principles 
in America, the seeds of which had been sown by its own 
folly, Parliament, on the 18th of March, repealed the 
obnoxious act. The British Legislature, however, yielded 
not with a good grace. " The colonists," wrote Sir William 
Baker to Sir William Johnson, " must not think that these 
lenient methods were brought about by the inducements 
of their violence." * Fearing, therefore, that their action 
would be misconstrued, Parliament hastened, almost simul- 
taneously with the repeal of the Stamp Act, to pass a bill 
declaring the absolute right of the King and Parliament 

* " I hope the last session of Parliament has conciliated the North Ameri- 
cans to their mother country ; but at the same time it must be expected from 
them obedience to the laws of this government. The colonists must not think 
these lenient methods made use of by that administration were brought about 
by the inducement of their violence; but was really the effect of conviction 
that the rash act past the two preceding sessions was unwarrantable and 
oppressive."— M. 8.; Sir William Baker to Johnson, Nov 7th, 1766. 



208 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

" to bind the colonies and people of America, subjects of the 
Crown of Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever." 

In the first delirium of delight at the repeal, the news 
of which was communicated to the colonists by their 
agents, on the 16th of May, the tendency of the Declara- 
tory Act was not heeded. In New York city, especially, 
the populace seemed wild with joy. Bells were rung, a 
royal salute of twenty -one guns fired, and the city illumi- 
nated. On the 4th of June, the King's birthday, the 
Governor had an ox roasted whole, a hogshead of rum 
and twenty-five barrels of beer opened, and the people 
invited to join in the feast. On the same day, a mast was 
erected, inscribed " To his most Gracious Majesty, George 
the Third, Mr. Pitt, and Liberty." But the enthusiasm 
of the people did not end here. On the 23d of June, a 
meeting was held, at which a petition was signed by a 
majority of the citizens, requesting the Assembly to erect 
a statue of William Pitt, as a mark of their appreciation 
of his services in repealing the Stanip Act. That body 
entered fully into the feelings of the people ; and, besides 
complying with the wishes of their constituents, in rela- 
tion to Pitt, they made provision for an equestrian statue 
to his majesty George the Third ; and also voted their 
thanks and a piece of plate to John Sargeant, a for 
his services as special agent." during the Stamp Act 
controversy. 

The opening speech of Governor Moore to the Assem- 
bly, on the 12th of June, began by adverting to the gen- 
eral satisfaction diffused among the people by the repeal 
of the Stamp Act. It was the impression made on the 
minds of the people by this act of his majesty's favor 
that had induced the Governor, so early, to call the 
Legislature, in order to give them the earliest opportunity 
of making those acknowledgments of duty and submission 
which, on such an occasion, his excellency thought must 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 209 

arise in the bosom of every individual. It then spoke of 
the impositions upon the credulity of the people by the 
misrepresentations of artful and designing men. " Let it 
be your concern," it continued, " to undeceive the deluded, 
and, by your example, bring back to a sense of their duty 
those who have been misled, that nothing which can carry 
with it the least resemblance of former heat and prejudice 
may be suffered to prevail, and the minds of those who 
are too easily agitated be again disposed to a cheerful obe- 
dience to the laws, and to sentiments of respectful gratitude 
to the mother country." Their attention was next directed 
to the care of those unfortunate persons who had suffered 
from the " licentiousness of the populace for their defer- 
ence to the British Legislature," and they were requested 
to make full and ample compensation for the goods and 
effects of the sufferers that had been destroyed. This 
latter suo-o-estion was owing; to circular letters from the 
minister to the provincial governors, requesting the colo- 
nial Assemblies to show their " respectful gratitude for the 
forbearance of Parliament," by indemnifying those who 
had suffered injury in attempting to execute the late act. 
In connection with the opening speech, petitions were 
handed in by Lieutenant-Governor Colden aud Major 
James, praying the Assembly to make good their losses 
by the recent riots. These petitions were thereupon 
referred to a committee of the whole House, who reported 
favorably upon the claims of Major James, but passed 
over in silence those of the Lieutenant-Governor — very 
much to the chagrin of the latter, who forthwith wrote a 
letter to Conway, begging him to lay his case before the 
King, that his losses might be recompensed by a pension. 
The Governor now ventured again to request of the 
Assembly its compliance with the demands of the Minis- 
try in relation to the quartering of troops, a large body of 
whom was shortly expected from England. But although 

27 



210 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

the House had joined with the council in an humble 
address to the King, thanking him for the repeal of the 
Stamp Act, and although, moreover, it was perfectly will- 
ing to vote statues to his majesty and William Pitt, it 
was no more disposed to comply with this demand, now 
that Parliament had yielded to its wishes, than it was at 
the previous session, when the Stamp Act was in full force. 
The House accordingly voted a series of resolutions simi- 
lar in tone to those passed November, 1765, and postponed 
further discussion on the subject until the troops had 
arrived. A second message, however, from Sir Henry 
Moore, induced it to alter its determination so far as to 
state that the appropriations of 1762 were at his disposal, 
and might be applied toward providing barracks, fire- 
wood, and candles, for two battalions and one company of 
artillery, for one year. Beyond this, however, it would 
not go ; and the Governor, while he was obliged to be 
content with this decision, wrote at the same time to 
the Lords of Trade, that its partial compliance was more 
the result of compulsion than of gratitude for recent 
favors ; and that, in his opinion, every act of Parliament, 
unless backed by a sufficient power to enforce it, would 
meet with the same fate. 

Meanwhile, troubles had arisen in Dutchess county, 
which, although in no way connected with the issues 
between the colonies and the mother country, at first 
threatened serious consequences. In the beginning of 
1766, the Stockbridge Indians, feeling aggrieved by the 
intrusions, as they claimed, of some of the people of 
Dutchess upon their lands, broke into the houses of the 
alleged trespassers, and turned their families out of doors. 
As is generally the case on such occasions, several of the 
vagabond class of whites, very ready for a fray, joined the 
rioters, and committed acts of violence throughout the 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 211 

country. The excitement now extended into Albany 
County; and the mob, now grown to formidable dimen- 
sions, threatened to attack New York city, and, indeed, 
actually began their march thither. In this exigency, 
General Gage (at that time commander-in-chief of his 
majesty's troops in America) ordered up, to meet the 
insurgents, the Twenty-eighth regiment, which had just 
arrived from England. The appearance of the troops 
soon brought the rioters to reason ; and having succeeded 
— though not without bloodshed — in restoring order, they 
returned to New York with the chief ringleaders of the 
rebellion. 

"In 1766, the Methodist denomination was first organ- 
ized in the city by Philip Embury and others; and in 
1767, the first church of this sect was erected upon i7gg. 
the site of the present one in John, near Nassau »*«*• 
Street, and, like it, christened Wesley Chapel. In the 
same year, also, the first medical school was established, 
which eventually became the New- York Hospital. Sev- 
eral new streets were opened about the same time — among 
others, Cliff Street and Park Place. For the better pre- 
vention of fires, an ordinance was passed directing that 
all the roofs in the city should be covered with slate or 
tiles. For some years, however, tiles alone were used, the 
first building roofed with slate being, it is said, the City 
Hotel, in Broadway, erected about 1794." 

The joyous feelings which had followed the repeal of 
the Stamp Act were not of long continuance. Hardly had 
the first gratulations of victory passed and sober reflection 
taken their place, when the Declaratory Act, in all its omi- 
nous proportions, loomed up, overshadowing the public 
mind with gloomy forebodings. The persistent attempt, 
moreover, to force the province into a compliance with 
the Mutiny Act — an act which, to thinking men, seemed 



212 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

intended to provide the nucleus of a standing army — 
alarmed all classes ; and secret leagues were at once 
formed in most of the colonies, the object of which was 
to further union of counsel in resisting oppression. The 
partial compliance of the Assembly with the requisition of 
the Governor for quarters had been exceedingly distaste- 
ful to the Sons of Liberty, who, upon the arrival of the 
troops, made no disguise of their feelings. Mutual ani- 
mosities accordingly arose between the citizens and sol- 
diery, which soon culminated in open acts of hostility. On 
the 10 th of August, 1766, some of the troops, exasperated 
at the people, to whose influence they attributed the action 
of the Assembly in depriving them of liquor, cut down the 
flag-staff, which, with so much apparent unanimity, had 
been dedicated to " Pitt and Liberty." The following- 
evening, while the citizens were preparing to re-erect the 
pole, they were assaulted by the soldiers with drawn bay- 
onets, and several of them, among whom was Isaac Sears, 
"were wounded. Governor Moore, who heartily wished 
the troops away, attempted, with General Gage, to restrain 
these outrages, and, to some extent, succeeded ; but the 
officers, intent upon gratifying their private malice, winked 
at the conduct of their men, who, thus encouraged, became 
more violent than ever. Several dwellings of the poorer 
class, situated in the suburbs of the city, were broken into 
on the 23d of October; and, on the 3d day of November, 
the domestic sanctuary of an honest drayman was entered 
by a soldier, who, while he wounded its occupant, hesitated 
not to hamstring his horse, upon which he relied for his 
daily bread. 

These licentious proceedings were not calculated to dis- 
pose the Assembly any more favorably to the attempt to 
quarter the obnoxious red-coats at their expense. Accord- 
ingly, when, on the 17th of November, Governor Moore 
laid before that body instructions from the Minister in- 



HISTORY" OF KEW YORK CITY. 213 

forming them of the King's displeasure at their conduct, 
their absolute duty to obey the acts of Parliament, and 
of his wish that provision for the troops should be imme- 
diately made, they refused outright to make further pro- 
vision, choosing to interpret the act as referring solely "to 
soldiers on the march." On this refusal, Governor Moore 
waited upon the House, and endeavored to prevail upon 
them to alter their determination. His efforts, however, 
were unavailing ; and having, by the defiant attitude thus 
assumed, no other alternative left, he prorogued the Assem- 
bly on the 19th of December. 

Already the British Cabinet regretted the repeal of 
the Stamp Act, and the project of taxing America was 
again resumed. The extravagant demonstrations of 
delight manifested by the colonists at the repeal had 
been regarded by British statesmen with ill-concealed 
disgust; and when, in May, 17G7, the news was 
received that Georgia, following the example of 
New York, had also declined obedience to the Mutiny Act, 
the chagrin at having yielded became open and undis- 
guised. Accordingly, in the same month, Townshend 
introduced a bill into the House of Commons, imposing a 
duty on all paper, glass, tea, and painters' colors, imported 
into the colonies. In its passage through Parliament, the 
bill met with scarcely any opposition ; and, on the 28th of 
June, it received the cordial assent and signature of the 
King. This was shortly followed by another, " to estab- 
lish Commissioners of Customs in America," and also by 
one " to compensate the stamp-officers who had been 
deprived by the people." But by far the most important 
in its consequences was another, which received the royal 
assent on the 29th, and which declared that the functions 
of the Assembly of New York zvere henceforth annulled — the 
Governor and council being forbidden to give their assent 
to any act passed by that body, " until the Mutiny Act 



214 HISTORY OF NEW TORE CITY. 

was unequivocally acknowledged and submitted to." The 
rebellious people of the colonies, said the authors of this 
act, must be brought to unqualified submission, and the 
supremacy of Parliament be maintained. 

This latter act — by far the deadliest blow that had 
yet been struck at their liberties — excited the utmost con- 
sternation throughout the American provinces. It was 
at once seen that if Parliament could, at pleasure, disfran- 
chise a sister colony, the same fate might, at any time, 
overtake the others. " This act," wrote Richard Henry 
Lee, of Virginia, " hangs like a naming sword over our 
heads, and requires, by all means, to be removed." The 
citizens of Boston, sympathizing deeply with the people of 
New York, expressed, in no measured terms, their indig- 
nation at what they styled ministerial tyranny. Tyranny 
it indeed was, and of the most inexcusable kind, inasmuch 
as it was not, as some have supposed, a tyranny into 
which the British Ministry were led blindly, or through 
ignorance of the consequences. " It is strange/' says an 
elegant English writer, " that the British Government 
should not have been apprehensive of the great and 
increasing danger in which its colonial dominion was 
involved." * It is not strange. The British Government 
did it with open eyes, and clearly foresaw the results 
toward which its colonial policy was fast tending; for 
while, in the spring of this year, the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer was pushing forward his schemes of taxation, 
General Gage was putting Fort George, Ticonderoga, and 
Crown Point on a thorough war footing ; and Carleton, the 
Lieutenant-Governor of Canada, was adding new defenses 
to Quebec. " These measures," wrote the latter to the 
Commander-in-Chief, " will link these two provinces — 
New York and Quebec — so strongly together as will add 
great security to both, and will facilitate the transfer of 

* Graham. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 215 

ten or fifteen thousand men, in the beginning of a war, 
from one to another, as circumstances may require ; " and 
in the same letter the writer suggests that a " place of 
arms" should be immediately established in New York, 
" for," he adds, " no pains, address, nor expense, is too 
great, that will give security to the King's magazines ; 
divide the Northern and Southern colonies ; and afford an 
opportunity of transporting our forces into any part of the 
continent." 

The Assembly having expired by its septennial limita- 
tion on the 6th of February, 1768, writs were issued for 
a new election, returnable on the 2 2d of the follow- 
ing month. Owing, however, to the Governor hav- 
ing no special business to lay before the House, the new 
Assembly was not convened until the 27th of October. 
The opening speech of the Governor related chiefly to the 
Indian trade, which his majesty had been pleased hence- 
forward to confide to the colonies " The advantages," 
said the Governor, " arising, not only from the intercourse 
of trade with the Indians, but from the maintenance of 
that tranquility among them which subsists at present, 
are so obvious as to require no arguments to enforce them. 
I shall, therefore, only recommend to you that, to avoid 
any future cause of dissatisfaction or jealousy being given, 
3^ou will, by the most effectual laws, prevent any settle- 
ments being made beyond the line which shall be agreed 
on by the Indians." In its reply, on the 3d of Novem- 
ber, the House expressed its willingness to co-operate with 
the Governor in any measures for the better regulation of 
the Indian trade ; and, indeed, for the first two weeks of 
the session, nothing occurred to ruffle the general har- 
mony of its proceedings. The critical posture of the 
province to the mother country, however, forbade that 
this state of quiescence should be lasting ; and it was not 



216 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

long before a direct issue arose between the Governor and 
his Assembly. 

The right of Parliament to tax America was still dis- 
cussed with great freedom in all the colonies, but in none 
with more vigor than in Massachusetts. In February, 
the Assembly of that province had addressed a circular 
letter, drafted by Samuel Adams, to her sister colonies, in 
which the " great evils to which the inhabitants of Amer- 
ica were subjected from the operation of several acts of 
Parliament imposing taxes upon them," were set forth, and 
their co-operation solicited in obtaining redress. This pro- 
ceeding, as may readily be imagined, gave great offense to 
the Ministry ; and Lord Hillsborough forthwith addressed 
a letter upon the subject to the several colonial Governors, 
requesting that their Assemblies should treat the circular 
letter with silent contempt. But the resentment of the 
mother country toward Massachusetts was not satisfied. 
It was determined to still further disgrace her, by detach- 
ing a strong military force to occupy her capital The 
rumor that such a step was meditated by the Crown 
caused considerable comment ; and when, on the 28th of 
September, two British regiments, accompanied by seven 
men-of-war, arrived at Boston from Halifax, the indigna- 
tion, not only in Massachusetts, but in those colonies that 
sympathized with her, became intense. In Connecticut, 
numerous town-meetings were held, in which it was 
resolved, first, " to seek the Lord, by general fasting, 
prayer, and humiliation, and then to call a convention of 
ninety-two persons, to determine what was to be done in 
the present difficulties and distress." In New York city, 
especially, the Sons of Liberty felt deeply the indignity 
offered to their sister colony; and, in their first ebullition 
of anger, indignation meetings were held, and Governor 
Bernard and his sheriff burned in etfigy. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 217 

Such was the state of public sentiment, when, on the 
14th of November, Sir Henry Moore laid before the 
House the Earl of Hillsborough's letter forbidding corre- 
spondence with Massachusetts, and called upon it to ren- 
der a cheerful obedience to the wishes of the Secretary. 
This action of the Governor was met by a warm remon- 
strance from the Assembly; and when, a few days after, 
the former threatened to dissolve it, in case of its not 
complying, it unhesitatingly refused obedience. The bold 
stand thus assumed was warmly seconded by public opin- 
ion, as appears conspicuously in the newspapers and 
private correspondence of the day. A series of articles, 
which had recently appeared under the title of " Letters 
from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the 
British Colonies," had paved the way for a fearless utter- 
ance against ministerial oppression. " Let these truths," 
said the leaders of the people in New York, " be indelibly 
impressed upon our minds, that we cannot be free without 
being secure in our property ; that we cannot be secure in 
our property if, without our consent, others may, as by 
right, take it away ; that taxes imposed by Parliament do 
thus take it away ; that duties, laid for the sole purpose 
of raising money, are taxes ; and that attempts to lay 
such should be instantly and firmly opposed." 

While, however, the Assembly was thus firm in main- 
taining its constitutional rights and privileges, it evinced 
no disposition to countenance acts of lawless violence ; 
and, in reply to a message from the Governor on the 23d, 
asking its aid in bringing to punishment the ringleaders 
in a recent riot, it reported a series of resolutions which 
distinctly set forth, that, although it felt deeply the course 
of Parliament toward them, yet, so far from approving of 
any violent proceedings, it would on all occasions endeavor 
to support the dignity and authority of government. The 
riot to which allusion is here made, had occurred on the 

28 



218 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

14th of November, and had been the result of new exac- 
tions, by way of imposts, of the Parliament upon the 
colonies ; and while the reply of the House, as intimated, 
strongly censured the rioters, yet it also condemned the 
new duties in terms equally severe. This address gave 
little satisfaction to the representative of the Crown; and 
on the last day of the year it was followed by a series of 
strong constitutional resolutions, among which was one 
declaring that it was the opinion of the committee " that 
the House had an undoubted right to correspond and con- 
sult with any of the neighboring colonies on any matter, 
subject, or thing whatever, whereby they should conceive 
the rights and liberties of the House to be in any way 
affected." 

These resolutions gave high displeasure ; and Sir 

Henry Moore, having convened the Assembly in the City 

Hall on the afternoon of the 3d of January, 1769, 

1769. . ... 

dissolved it by a speech of evident irritation, yet 
of affected regret and sorrow at the occasion demanding 
the summary measure. Writs for a new election were 
immediately issued, returnable on the 14th of February. 
The people, however, sustained the action of their repre- 
sentatives, and all the former members, with the excep- 
tion of six. were returned by overwhelming majorities. 
Such was the result of the first direct appeal of the Crown 
to the people on the subject of the great constitutional 
principles of liberty, which were now beginning to agitate 
the political waters to their deepest fountains. 

Notwithstanding, however, the fact that most of the 
old members were returned, the election was hotly con- 
tested. " I hear," wrote Sir William Johnson, jocularly, 
to a friend in New York, " that you are likely to have a 
hot election, and probably there will be work for shilla- 
lahs." Nor was the writer far out in his conjecture. At 
no time for many years had the excitement been more 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 219 

intense, and every means and device was made use of to 
secure votes. In New York city, especially, the contest 
was between the church party and the dissenters^ — the 
former being led by the De Lanceys, and the latter by the 
Livingstons. " It is surprising," writes Peter Van Schaak 
to his brother Henry, under date of January 27th, 1769, 
" what trifles can be turned to the greatest advantage 
in elections, and be made to captivate the passions of the 
vulgar. A straw, a fire-brand, have severally answered 
this purpose in a recent instance. It was said, during the 
last election, that T. Smith had said that the Irish were 
poor beggars, and had come over here upon a bunch of 
straw. The whole body of Irishmen immediately joined, 
and appeared with straws in their hats. Mr. Kissam, 
who summed up the evidence for Mr. Scott in the late 
charge against Mr. Jauncey, happened to say that the 
passions of the Germans were fire-brands. A whole con- 
gregation were, in consequence of that, resolved to vote 
with them in their hands ; but, being dissuaded, they, 
however, distinguished themselves by the name of the 
Fire-brands. These gentlemen have also made themselves 
remarkable by a song in the German language, the chorus 
of which is : 

" ' Maester Cruger, De Lancey, 
Maester Walton and Jauncey.' 

" 'Twas droll to see some of the first gentlemen in 
town joining in singing these songs, while they con- 
ducted the members to the Coffee-house." " I arrived 
here St. John's Day," writes another person, at the same 
time, from New York to a friend, " when there was a 
grand procession of the whole Masonic fraternity, and a 

* And not between the lawyers and the merchants as such, as stated by 
Miss Booth. This writer also makes the prorogation of the Assembly, by Gov- 
ernor Moore, occur in 1768, a year previous. This is, however, probably a 
typographical error. 



220 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



very excellent sermon preached by Dr. Auchmuty, at 
Trinity church, on the occasion. At the same time a col- 
lection was made for the city, which I think amounted to 
£200. Would you think it, but it is true, that the Pres- 
byterians immediately labored to convert this charitable 
affair to the disadvantage of the Church of England and 




THE OLD WALTON HOUSE. 



the part which they take in the election ensuing ? Will. 
Smith and W. Livingston got an old rascally sermon, 
called ' Masonry, the sure Guide to Hell,' reprinted, and 
distributed it with great assiduity, * * and there is 
this day an extraordinary Lodge held on the occasion, in 
order to consult means to resent the affront." The 
church party, having the support of the mercantile and 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 221 

Masonic interests, was triumphant; and John Cruger, 
James De Lancey, Jacob Walton, and James Jauncey, 
were elected by the city. 

On the 4th of April, 1769, the new Assembly met. 
John Cruger was immediately chosen speaker, and it was 
not long before another proof was afforded of the strength 
of the church party in the House. " The De Lancey inter- 
est," wrote Hugh Wallace, a member of the council, to 
Sir William Johnson, " prevails in the House greatly, and 
they have given the Livingston interest proof of it by 
dismissing P. Livingston the House as a non-resident." 
The Livingstons, however, were not entirely crushed, for 
the same writer adds : " It is said he will be returned 
again and again, and so become another Wilkes." 

The opening speech of Governor Moore contained not 
the remotest reference to the difficulties which had caused 
the recent dissolution, but referred only to the manner in 
which the colony's agent in London was appointed ; a 
mode which his excellency thought objectionable, he 
being of the opinion that the appointment of an agent 
should be made by an act of the Governor, Council, and 
Assembly, specially passed for that purpose, as had for- 
merly been the case. The change in the manner of 
appointing the colonial agent was first introduced 
during the administration of Governor Clinton, in 1747, in 
the appointment of Robert Charles, without the former's 
privity or consent. Clinton complained bitterly at the 
time of the innovation, but without effect; it was, 
therefore, not likely that the Assembly, having had their 
own way in this matter for upward of twenty years, 
would now yield. Accordingly, in their reply, they 
utterly declined adopting the mode which his excellency 
had recommended. This, of course, gave great dissatisfac- 
tion to the Governor, who, on the 20th of May, prorogued 
the Assembly to the month of July ; not, however, until 



222 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

that body had voted, with a very ill grace, £1,800 for the 
support of his majesty's troops quartered in the colony. 

The death of Sir Henry Moore, on the 11th of Sep- 
tember, 1769, threw a gloom over the entire city. His 
polished manners, courteous address, and genial disposi- 
tion had endeared him to many in the colony. Although 
forced oftentimes, as the representative of the Crown, 
to come in collision with the popular sentiment, yet such 
occasions were evidently so distasteful to him that many 
who were his bitter political enemies regarded him with 
cordial good-will. By his death, the reins of government 
fell, for the third time, into the hands of Doctor Colden, 
who, as Lieutenant-Governor, opened the fall session of 
the Assembly on the 22d of November. 

Appearances seemed to indicate a stormy session. 
Massachusetts had just passed a series of spirited resolu- 
tions against the military and naval force stationed at her 
capital. The Assembly of Virginia, late in the spring, had 
been dissolved by the new Governor, Lord Botetourt, for 
its presumption in sending Massachusetts words of encour- 
agement and support. The refusal, moreover, of the House 
of Commons, in March, to receive the representative of 
the New York Assembly, excited the apprehensions of 
those of the colonists who had hitherto been warmly 
attached to the Crown. " I must confess," wrote Sir Wil- 
liam Johnson, in September, " that the aspect of affairs at 
home is very unpleasing, and ought to give concern to 
every well-wisher of his country, because, whatever reason 
or justice there may be in the late steps, there is a proba- 
bility of their being carried further than a good man can 
wish for." 

Contrary, however, to general expectation, during the 
fall and winter session, there were no collisions between 
the Executive -and the Legislature, although the spirited 
resolutions of Virginia, of the preceding May, were unani- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 223 

mously concurred in. On the first day of the session, a 
bill was introduced for. emitting one hundred and twenty 
thousand pounds in bills of credit, to be put out on loan, 
as a means of revenue. The bill was at first hailed with 
delight by the leaders of the popular party, who thought 
they discerned in it a desire, on the part of the Executive, 
to gratify the wish of the people. When, however, it was 
followed, on the 15th of December, by a motion to grant 
two thousand pounds for the support of his majesty's 
troops in the colony, which sum was to be taken out of 
the interest arising from the loan bill, when it should 
become a law, a complete revulsion of feeling took place ; 
and they now saw only an attempt, on the part of the Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, to compel the Assembly into an uncon- 
ditional submission to the Mutiny Act. Accordingly, the 
first sight that greeted the citizens on the morning of the 
17th was a flaming placard, posted up in the most con- 
spicuous portions of the city, addressed " To the Betrayed 
Inhabitants of the City and Colony of New York," and 
signed " A Son of Liberty." This placard declared that 
the granting of money to the troops was implicitly 
acknowledging the authority that had enacted the reve- 
nue acts, which had been passed for the express purpose 
of taking money out of the pockets of the colonists with- 
out their consent ; that what made the granting of money 
the more grievous was, that it went to the support of 
troops kept, not to protect, but to enslave them ; that this 
was the view taken of the Mutiny Act by the Assemblies 
of Massachusetts and South Carolina — therefore, let not 
the Assembly of New York tell their disgrace in Boston, 
nor publish it in the streets of Charleston ! The Assem- 
bly, moreover, had not been attentive to the liberties of 
this continent, nor to the prosperity of the good people of 
this colony. This sacrifice of the public interest it attrib- 
uted to a corrupt source which it scrupled not to affirm, 



224 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

in plain words, was an infamous coalition recently entered 
into between the Executive and the De Lancey family for 
this very object. In conclusion, the placaid advised all 
the people to assemble the following day in "the fields" 
(the Park), there to express their sentiments upon a point 
so vital to colonial liberty. 

The large concourse of people gathered in " the fields " 
at the time appointed, clearly showed how in unison with 
the public feeling were the sentiments uttered in the 
placard of the previous day. The object of the gathering 
was set forth by John Lamb, one of the most prominent 
of the Sons of Liberty, and the question asked, whether 
the citizens would uphold the recent action of the Assem- 
bly. The emphatic "No" that at once arose from the 
vast throng was a sufficient answer to this question ; and 
a committee of seven were immediately appointed to carry 
this public expression of feeling to the Legislature. But 
however much that body may have regretted their partial 
committal to the loan bill, they did not choose to be dic- 
tated to by a meeting which they considered little better 
than a mob. Accordingly, the consideration of the placard 
having been made the first order of the following day, 
James De Lancey moved that " the sense of the House 
should be taken whether the said paper was not an 
infamous and scandalous libel." The question being put, 
all the members voted in the affirmative, except Colonel 
Schuyler, who, when his name was called, with admira- 
ble moral courage, fearlessly answered in the negative. 
A series of resolutions was then passed condemning the 
paper as false, seditious, and infamous, and requesting the 
Lieutenant-Governor to offer a reward of one .hundred 
pounds for its author or authors. Immediately after the 
passage of these resolutions, Mr. De Lancey laid before the 
House another hand bill, in which the late proceedings of 
that body were strongly condemned, signed " Legion." 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 225 

Resolves were at once passed, similar in tone to those just 
noticed, and an additional reward of fifty pounds offered 
for the writer of this also. 

Nothing worthy of special mention occurred during the 
remainder of this session. John Lamb, it is true, three 
days after the passage of the resolutions, was arraigned 
before the House on suspicion of being the author of the 
libelous hand bill ; but, nothing being proved against him, 
he was immediately discharged. The General Assembly 
having now been convened more than two months, and 
its members being now anxious to return to their homes, 
Lieutenant-Governor Colden signed several acts, among 
them one for appointing commissioners from the 
neighboring colonies, to agree upon a plan for regu- 
lating the Indian trade ; and, on the 27 th of January, 
1770, prorogued it to the second Tuesday in March, and, 
from time to time afterward, to the 11th of December. 

Meanwhile, the hatred between the soldiers and the 
Sons of Liberty daily gained strength. The former had 
long writhed under the undisguised disgust with which 
they were treated by the latter, and only waited for an 
opportunity to repay this scorn with interest. Hitherto 
they had been restrained, through motives of policy ; and, 
now that the supplies were granted, they threw off all 
restraint, and resolved to insult their enemies in the 
most tender spot. Accordingly, on the 13th of Janu- 
ary, a portion of the Sixteenth regiment attempted to 
destroy the liberty-pole, by sawing off its spars and blow- 
ing it up with gunpowder. A knot of citizens having 
gathered round while they were thus engaged, they 
desisted for the present from the attempt, and, charging 
upon the group with fixed bayonets, drove them into a 
tavern (kept by Montagne), a favorite resort of the Sons 
of Liberty, broke the windows, and demolished a portion 
of the furniture. Three days afterward, however, they 

29 



226 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

succeeded in their design ; and having, on the night of the 
lGth, cut the obnoxious symbol in pieces, they piled its 
fragments in front of Montagne's door. Incensed at this 
daring insult, three thousand citizens assembled early the 
following morning at the scene of the outrage, and adopted, 
among others, a resolution that all soldiers found in the 
streets after roll-call " should be treated as enemies of the 
city ; " mutually pledging themselves to see that this 
resolve was vigorously enforced. Early the next morning, 
insulting placards were found posted up in various parts 
of the city, ridiculing the resolutions of the previous day, 
and daring the citizens to carry them into execution. In 
the course of the day, three soldiers were discovered by 
Sears and others in the act of posting up more of these 
hand bills ; and a skirmish ensuing, the citizens, having 
obtained the upper hand, were conducting the offenders to 
the office of the Mayor, when they were met by a band of 
twenty additional troops. A. general light with cutlasses 
and clubs now followed, the military slowly retreating to 
Golden Hill.* At this point they were met by a party 
of officers, who immediately ordered their men to the 
barracks, and the riot was quelled. In this brush, several 
citizens were wounded and one killed, although the sol- 
diers were worsted. The following day witnessed a num- 
ber of frays, none of which, however, were attended with 
loss of life ; and on the 20th, the Mayor having issued a 
proclamation forbidding the soldiers to come out of the 
barracks unless accompanied by a non-commissioned 
officer, the excitement was quieted and order once more 
restored.! On the 5th of February another pole was 



* John Street, between Cliff Street and Burling Slip. 

f " We are all in confusion in this city ; the soldiers have cut and blowed 
up the Liberty Pole, and have caused much trouble between the inhabitants. 
On Friday last, between Burling Slip and Fly Market was an engagement be- 
tween the inhabitants and the soldiers, when much blood was spilt; one sailor 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 227 

erected, inscribed " Liberty and Property," on ground pur- 
chased for the purpose, where it remained until cut down 
in 1776 by the British soldiery at that time occupying 
the city. 

Meanwhile the Sons of Liberty were undaunted. In 
February, one hundred of them purchased of Colonel Mor- 
ris a house for six hundred pounds — each of them con- 
tributing six pounds — in which to celebrate the repeal of 
the Stamp Act ; and having, on the 19th of March, drank 
forty-five popular toasts, they proceeded to the jail, where 
Captain McDougall was confined for being the author of 
the libelous handbill of the previous December, saluted 
him with forty-five cheers, and quietly dispersed. 

In Boston, the feeling between the citizens and sol- 
diery was even more embittered. The news of the recent 
occurrences in New York was not calculated to soothe this 
mutual animosity ; and when, on the 2d of March, an 
affray took place at Gray's rope-walk, between a citizen 
and a soldier, in which the latter was worsted, it required 
but a small degree of forecast to anticipate an approach- 
ing explosion. Three days afterward, on the evening of 
the 5th, a sentinel, who had wantonly abused a lad, was 
surrounded in King Street by a mob of boys, and pelted 
with snow-balls, made of the light snow that had just 
fallen. " They are killing the sentinel!" shouted a by- 
stander to the main guard. Instantly a file of six sol- 
diers, headed by a corporal and followed by Preston, the 
officer of the day, rushed to the rescue, at a double-quick 



got run through the body, who since died ; one man got his skull cut in the 
most cruel manner. On Saturday the Hall-bell rang for an alarm, when was 
another battle between the inhabitants and soldiers ; but the soldiers met with 
rubbers, the chiefest part being sailors with clubs to revenge the death of 
their brother, which they did with courage, and made them all run to their 
barracks. What will be the end of this, God knows." — Letter from " Neio 
York, Jan. 22rf, 1770," in St. James Chronicle, or the British Evening Post, 
March oth, 1770. 



228 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

step, with fixed bayonets. A crowd gathered round, and, 
the musket of a soldier being hit by a stick thrown from 
the throng, Preston gave the order to fire. Montgomery, 
the man whose musket had been hit, immediately fired ; 
and Attucks, a mulatto, who had been quietly looking on, 
fell dead on the spot. Six others, thereupon, taking delib- 
erate aim, fired in succession at the crowd, who were 
already beginning to disperse. Three of the citizens, 
including the mulatto, were instantly killed ; and of eight 
others who were wounded, two died shortly afterward, 
from their injuries. 

It has usually been asserted by historians, that the first 
blood in the war of the American Revolution was shed at 
Lexington ; but such is not the fact. The Battle of 
Golden Hill, on the 18th of January, 1770, was the 
beginning of that contest, so fearful in its commencement, 
so doubtful in its progress, and so splendid in its results. 
The storm had now been gathering for several years, and 
the public mind had become exceedingly feverish, not 
only in respect to the conduct of the parent Government, 
but in regard to the language and bearing of the officers 
of the Crown stationed in the colonies. The destruction 
of the liberty-pole increased the mutual exasperation ; and 
the fight that followed was but the natural consequence. 
To the City of New York, therefore, must ever be given the 
honor of striking the first bloiv. The town was thrown into 
commotion, the bells rang, and the news, with the exag- 
gerations and embellishments incident to all occasions of 
alarm, spread through the country with the rapidity of 
lightning. Everywhere throughout the wide extent of 
the old thirteen colonies it created a strong sensation, and 
was received with a degree of indignant emotion which 
very clearly foretold that blood had only commenced 
flowing. The massacre in King Street, two months Liter, 
added intensity to the flame ; and, although five years 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 229 

intervened before the demonstration at Lexington, there 
were too many nervous pens and eloquent tongues in 
exercise to allow these feelings to subside, or the noble 
spirit of liberty that had been awakened to be quenched. 
" Such stirring orations as those of Joseph Warren were 
not uttered in vain ; and often were the people reminded 
by him, or by his compatriots of kindred spirits — ' The 
voice of your brethren's blood cries to you from the 
ground ! ' The admonition had its effect, and the resolu- 
tions of vengeance sank deeper and deeper, until the 
fullness of time should come ! " 



CHAPTER VII. 

On the 18th of October, 1770, John, Earl of Dunmore, 

arrived in New York to occupy the gubernatorial chair, 

left vacant by the lamented Sir Henry Moore. 
mo. . . 

The new Governor is described, in a letter to Sir 

William Johnson, as " a very active man, fond of walking 
and riding, and a sportsman." This description affords a 
clue to the character of the man — easy in his disposition, 
and one who preferred the delights of the chase to contro- 
versies with his Legislature. There was little likelihood, 
however, of his being troubled with a body that had of 
late grown very subservient. The news, moreover, which 
he brought with him, of his majesty's consent to the bill 
authorizing the emission of a colonial currency, increased 
the spirit of loyalty ; and when, in his opening speech on 
the 11th of December, he expressed his pleasure that the 
example of the loyal subjects of the province had been the 
means of restoring friendly feelings and confidence between 
the parent country and the colonists, the address of the 
Assembly, in reply, was a simple echo. During the entire 
session, therefore, the wheels of government rolled 

1771. . 

smoothly ; and at its close, on the 16th of Feb- 
ruary, 1771, the loan bill was passed, as was also the 
one for appropriating two thousand pounds for the sup- 
port of the troops. The crown had seemingly triumphed ; 
but the end was not yet. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 231 

On the 8th of July, 1771, Sir William Tryon, Bart., 
having rendered himself odious to the people of North 
Carolina by his petty tyranny, arrived in New York, 
bearing his majesty's commission as Governor and Com- 
mander-in-Chief, in the place of Lord Dunmore, who was 
transferred to the government of Virginia. 

The year 1771 was also marked by the founding of 
the New York Hospital. The first regular meeting, after 
its organization, was held on the 24th of July, 1771. The 
hospital began by the reception of lunatics, and patients 
who were suffering from small-pox and syphilis. Fractures 
and maniacs appeared together on the reports of diseases. 
In 1798, the governors announced that the hospital was, 
properly, an infirmary for the reception of such persons 
as require first, medical treatment; second, chirurgical 
management ; third, for maniacs ; and fourth, for lying-in 
women. Two hundred pounds were voted as the begin- 
ning of a library. The meetings of the governors were 
held for a long time at Bolton's tavern, or at the Coffee- 
house. Bolton's was celebrated for fifty years as a place 
of resort, like our modern Delmonico's, and was still better 
known as Sam Francis's tavern. Here Washington bade 
farewell to his officers, December 4th, 1783. The building 
is still standing on the south-east corner of Broad and Pearl 
Streets. The Coffee-house, sometimes called " The Mer- 
chants' Coffee-house," stood on the south-east corner of 
Wall and Water Streets, recently occupied by the Journal 
of Commerce. The slip near it was known as " Coffee-house 
Slip," at the foot of Wall Street. The meal or flour mar- 
ket was close by. The river then came up to Water 
Street. When the governors purchased the five acres on 
which they built in 1771 (a part of the Rutgers farm), the 
spot selected was upon a spur or hill, surrounded on three 
sides by marshes. 

The water of two ponds, or " kolcks," frequently over- 



232 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

tiowecl meadows where now is the corner of Pearl and 
Chatham Streets, so that ferry-boats were used. Rutgers 
had suffered so lamentably with fever and ague that he 
had some years before prayed the King for a better title 
to his marshes, so that he might sell them to somebody 
willing to make drains, because the inhabitants lost one- 
third of their time by sickness. Governor George Clinton 
complained, in 174G, to the Duke of Newcastle, that his 
son had an ague and fever about ten months, which had 
worn him to nothing. Where the Astor House stands, 
there was, in 1780, an encampment of negro slaves who 
had been enticed by Lord Dunmore from Virginia. They 
died in large numbers of small-pox, and were buried where 
Stewart's store, corner of Broadway and Reade Street, now 
stands. John Quincy Adams saw New York in 1785 for 
the first time, and found the city had then but 18,000 
inhabitants. He says that while he tarried at John Jay's, 
that gentleman was laying the foundation of a house on 
Broadway, a quarter of a mile from any other dwelling. 
Mr. Jay lived nearly opposite the hospital. In 1780, a 
duel was fought behind the hospital, as the most retired 
spot for the purpose. The cow-pastures extended from 
Grand Street down to the hospital, which adjoined the 
Raneleagh Gardens. Beyond St. Paul's church were fields, 
orchards, and swamps. G. W. P. Custis, who was a mem- 
ber of Washington's family while the President resided in 
New York, spoke of St. Paul's church as quite out of town, 
and of playing on a fine green common where the Park 
Theater stood. 

William A. Duer, in his reminiscences that began after 
the war, in 1784, speaks of having often passed on skates 
from the " kolck " under the bridge at Broadway and 
Canal Street ; and, pursuing the outlet to the meadows, 
he would proceed over them to the north beyond Hudson 
Square, and to the south as far as Duane Street, then 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 233 

Barclay Street, in the rear of the hospital. Our predeces- 
sors were men who had faith in the growth of New York. 
They knew that malaria would disappear with drainage ; 
and so they ventured, in 1771, to build their hospital out 
of town, on elevated ground, having eight beds in a ward, 
as John Howard proved to be right, in Europe, fourteen 
years afterward. The lands purchased a century ago still 
remain unsold, and are not unlikely to yield a rental 
which may enable the society largely to increase its use- 
fulness, while so responsible a trust imposes upon the 
governors the duty of careful inquiry into the manner of 
establishing the best possible hospital, for it will be in 
their power to afford every means of cure that science 
shall point out. 

Three years were employed in selecting the place and 
choosing the proper kind of buildings for the Asylum for 
the Insane. "Beginning in July, 1815, various sites were 
chosen and abandoned. Long Island, Great Barren Island, 
lands on the East River and on Harlem Heights, were ex- 
amined. Twenty-six reports of committees were noted in 
the minutes of as many meetings before the buildings were 
begun. Seventy-seven acres were bought. Thirty-seven 
of them were sold. A debt of $137,000 was incurred, and 
a sinking-fund established, which finally discharged, in 
1815, the entire debt, leaving the asylum, with nearly 
forty acres of land, free of incumbrances, as it now 
remains. So favorable to longevity has the locality 
proved, that four patients who died there had been in- 
mates fifty -eight, fifty-three, fifty-one, and forty-four years, 
respectively. The pressure of the city has compelled the 
asylum to seek ampler space elsewhere. Created by the 
enlightened exertions of eminent surgeons and physicians, 
the New York Hospital has always honored them and 
their successors. The oldest names that have shed luster 
upon American science have been connected with our 

30 



234 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

institution. The most wonderful triumphs of surgery have 
been achieved within its walls and by members of its 
staff. The fame of Mott, Stevens, Rogers, Hosack, Post, 
Smith, Gordon Buck, and many others, belongs to the his- 
tory of our hospital, and is our proudest possession. The 
old hospital will ever seek to derive its chief honor from 
such supporters, and to afford them the widest field for the 
exercise of their talents and for gathering fresh laurels." * 
Connected with the history of the New York Hospi- 
tal is an episode which may not be omitted, as it also 
forms a portion of the history of the city. It was on the 
12th of April, 1788, that a riot occurred, which, although 
afterward facetiously called " The Doctor's Mob," yet, at 
the time ; was no laughable matter, and, indeed, threatened 
to be very serious in its consequences. The public mind 
had a few weeks previously been thrown into great excite- 
ment by the discovery that a number of dead bodies had 
been stolen from the different cemeteries of the city by 
medical students. This circumstance had considerably agi- 
tated the public mind; "and it was further provoked," says 
Judge Duer, " by the reckless and wanton imprudence of 
some young surgeons at the hospital, who from one of the 
upper windows exhibited the dissected arm of a subject to 
some boys who were at play on the green below. One of 
them, whose curiosity was thus excited, mounted upon a 
ladder used for some repairs, and, as he reached the win- 
dow, was told by one of the doctors to look at his mother } s 
arm. It happened, unfortunately, that the boy's mother 
had recently died, and the horror which had now taken 
the place of his curiosity induced him to run to his father, 
who was at work as a mason at a building in Broadway 
(no doubt on Saturday, April 12th), with the information 

* Address of Mr. James W. Beekman, delivered before the New York His- 
torical Society on the 24th of July, 1871, on the occasion of the celebration of 
the centennial anniversary of the founding of the New York Hospital. 



msronir of new york city. 235 

of what he had seen and heard. Upon receiving the intel- 
ligence, the father repaired to his wife's grave, and, upon 
opening it, found that the body had been removed. He 
returned forthwith to the place where he had been at work, 
and informed his fellow-laborers of the circumstances : 
their indignation and horror at the relation were nearly 
equal to his own. Armed with the tools of their trade, 
they marched in a body to the hospital, gathering recruits 
by the way, in number amounting to a formidable mob." 
On arriving at the spot, the hospital itself was surrounded 
by the excited crowd, who, bursting open the doors, de- 
stroyed a remarkably choice collection of specimens in the 
anatomical museum, which had been brought from abroad. 
The physicians themselves were dragged from their places 
of concealment, and would have been hung up on the spot, 
had they not been rescued and lodged in the jail for safety. 
This, however, although it saved the lives of the physi- 
cians, only exasperated the populace still more. Accord- 
ingly, in the afternoon of the next day, upon their demand 
for the surrender of the physicians into their hands 
having been refused, they attacked the few military that 
had been called out to defend the jail, broke the windows, 
tore down the fences, and swore to take the lives of 
every physician in the city. Matters at length became so 
serious that the citizens armed themselves, and, accompa- 
nied by the Mayor, turned out in a body to relieve the 
party defending the jail. Before proceeding to violent 
measures, however, Clinton, Hamilton, Jay, Baron Steu- 
ben, and other prominent citizens, endeavored to appease 
the popular fury, but in vain. Still, the Mayor hesitated 
to give the order to fire ; and it was not until John Jay 
and Baron Steuben had both been severely wounded by 
stones (the latter, indeed, felled to the ground), that the 
order was given. Five rioters fell, mortally wounded, at 
the first fire ; several were wounded, and the remainder 



236 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

quickly dispersed.* The brigade under General Malcom 
and Colonel Bauman's artillery were out several days and 
nights after in detachments ; but the mob did not again 
collect, and the peace of the city was restored. 

The General Assembly, which had been prorogued to 

the 7th day of August, 1771, was now further prorogued 

from time to time to the 7th of January, 1772, 

1772. . . 

when it again met, and, on the 8th, the session 
was opened for business by a speech from the new Gov- 
ernor, of a mild and conciliatory character. His arrival 
had been greeted by affectionate addresses of congratu- 
lation, to' which he referred with apparent warmth. His 
recent cruel conduct in North Carolina was then justified 
as a meritorious effort to preserve the constitution and the 
laws ; and, in seeming mockery, his late wonderful achieve- 
ment in that province — of dispersing with over one thou- 
sand armed troops an unarmed and inoffensive crowd — 
was attributed to the special favor of a kind Providence. 
The necessity of passing a good militia bill was then 
pointed out ; and the thorough repairing of the fortifica- 
tions of the city, which had become greatly injured by the 
weather, was also recommended as worthy of immediate 
attention. " Influenced only," he added, with consum- 
mate flattery, "by principles that flow from an honest 
heart, I feel an ardent desire to co-operate with you in 
every measure that will best promote the honor and dig- 
nity of his majesty's Government, and advance the real 
felicity of a people eminently distinguished by their 
loyalty to the best of sovereigns, and affectionate dis- 

* " A ludicrous incident, illustrative of the height of the popular fury, 
occurred during the riot, which was nearly attended by disastrous conse- 
quences. While the excitement was at its height, a party of the rioters 
chanced to pass the house of Sir John Temple, then resident British consul at 
New York, and, mistaking the name of ' Sir John ' for ' Surgeon,' attacked it 
furiously, and were with difficulty restrained from leveling it to the ground." 
— Miss Booth's History of New York City. 



HISTORY OP NEW YORK CITY. 237 

position to their mother country." The address sent in to 
the Governor by the House, on the 17th, was conceived 
in the same spirit that dictated the opening speech. It 
accorded high praise to the brief administration of the 
Earl of Dunmore, for its equity, impartiality, and disin- 
terestedness ; and expressed strong confidence in the wis- 
dom which was to mark that of his lordship's immediate 
successor, as shown more particularly in his beneficent 
administration of his former government ! 

Indeed, it seemed as if, in this address, the last linger- 
ing embers of resistance to ministerial tyranny in the 
colony of New York had expired. A few stanch patriots, 
such as Philip Schuyler, it is true, still remained in the 
Assembly ; but their voices were powerless to turn back 
the tide which now rolled in from the ocean of ministerial 
patronage. William Tryon, a man fully as subservient as 
Hutchinson, without his ability, backed by the Upper 
House, and rendered, moreover, independent of the colony 
by a recent order of the Crown, that his salary should 
hereafter be paid from the revenue chest, was well fitted 
for the purpose for which he had been transferred to the 
chair lately occupied by the mild, but passive and inefficient, 
Dunmore. Indeed, if anything was wanting to show the 
subserviency of the present Assembly, it was supplied by 
the utter indifference with which this attempt to render 
the Executive independent of the people was received. In 
former Assemblies, such an announcement would have 
been met with an outburst of indignation before which no 
Governor could have stood ; but now a message from 
Tryon, in February, refusing to receive a salary from the 
people, produced not a word of comment ; and the removal 
of this strong bulwark of their liberties was quietly 
acquiesced in. Far different, however, was the action of 
tiie Assemblies of Massachusetts and the other colonies, 
to whom the ministerial instruction in relation to salaries 



23S HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

also extended. In the former body, especially, the recent 
act of Parliament was boldly denounced ; other colonial 
Legislatures did the same. New York was silent. True 
men looked on in amazement, and in anxious expectation 
strained their eyes for the first rays of the day-star of 
hope. 

But while the representatives of the people were thus 
unmindful of their liberties, they were more attentive to 
the local interests of the colony. At the close of the 
present session, many praiseworthy acts were passed ; and 
among them one for founding the present New York Hos- 
pital, and another for dividing Albany county into three 
counties, Albany, Tryon, and Charlotte. 

Meanwhile, blind to their own interests, the ministry 
thought only of reducing their " rebellious subjects " into 
submission. Mortified and exasperated at the signal fail- 
ure to foist the Stamp Act upon the colonists, they were 
ready to embrace any scheme which promised to soothe 
their wounded pride. An opportunity for doing this soon 
came. The East India Company were now suffering 
severely from the effect of the non-importation agree- 
ments. Unable to make their annual payments to the 
Government, of £1,400,000, they found themselves, in the 
spring of 1773, with seventeen million chests of tea on 
their hands, on the very verge of bankruptcy. In this 
state of affairs, the company, in April, petitioned Parlia- 
ment for permission to export their teas to America, and 
other countries, free of duty. This request, however, the 
ministry, jealous of relinquishing in the least their right 
to tax the colonies, would not grant ; but, by a special act 
of Parliament passed on the 10th of June, allowed the 
company to ship their tea to America, free of any export 
duty — thus putting it in the power of the company 
to sell their tea at a lower price in America than in Eng- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 239 

land. No act that the Home Government had hitherto 
passed, showed more plainly its utter inability to compre- 
hend the great principle for which the colonists were con- 
tending, than this. It was clear that the ministry sup- 
posed that the motive of the colonists in resisting taxation 
was merely of a sordid nature. This idea was in itself 
sufficiently humiliating ; and now, when, by making con- 
cessions to the East India Company, a direct attempt was 
made to buy them off by an appeal to their pockets, the 
indignation of the colonists was raised to the highest 
pitch. 

The plan of union as proposed by Virginia, and which 
had now been adopted by all the New England colonies, 
rendered concert of action much easier than heretofore. 
Accordingly, as soon as it was known that the tea-ships 
were on their way to America, measures were immediately 
taken to prevent the landing of their cargoes. The non- 
importation agreements, which had of late grown lax, 
became again stringent ; and the correspondence between 
the vigilant committees of the several colonies was 
renewed with greater activity than ever. On the 18th 
of October, 1773, the inhabitants of Philadelphia assem- 
bled in the State House ; and, having in several spirited 
resolutions denied the right of Parliament to tax America, 
and denounced the duty on the tea, compelled the agents 
of the East India Company, by the mere force of public 
opinion, to resign. In Boston, the patriots were no less 
active. Town meetings were constantly held, and com- 
mittees appointed to confer with committees from the 
neighboring towns upon the best method of " preventing 
the landing and sale of the teas exported from the East 
India Company." Unlike, however, the excitement pro- 
duced by the Stamp Act, everything was now done 
" decently and in order." The burning of the Gaspe in 
the waters of the Narraganset, on the night of the 17th of 



240 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

June, 1772, was suggestive. On the night of the 16th of 
December, 1773, three tea-ships, which lay moored at Grif- 
fin's Wharf, were boarded by a party of men dis- 
guised as Mohawk Indians, and their cargoes, con- 
sisting of three hundred and forty chests of tea, thrown 
into the waters of the bay. 

Nor was New York behind her sister colonies in resist- 
ing this new feature of ministerial oppression. Two days 
after the meeting in Philadelphia, the Sons of Liberty held 
a public meeting, in which they denounced in unequivocal 
terms the importation of the hateful article ; and declared 
with such effect that tea-commissioners were fully as 
obnoxious as stamp-distributers, that the commissioners 
appointed for New York forthwith resigned. Public sen- 
timent, moreover, was not confined merely to resolves. 
A remark of Governor Try on, that " the tea should be 
delivered to the consignees, even if it was sprinkled with 
blood," was not calculated to pour oil upon the troubled 
waters ; and so soon as it was known that consignments 
of tea would shortly reach the city, another mass-meeting 
of the citizens was held at their old rendezvous — " the 
fields" — to devise measures for preventing the landing of 
the tea from a vessel which was hourly expected. Hardly 
had the people assembled, when Whitehead Hicks, the 
Mayor, hastened to the meeting, charged with a message 
from the Governor, to the effect that, when the vessel 
arrived, the tea should be publicly taken from the ship 
into the fort, and there kept until the advice of the coun- 
cil could be taken, or the King's order could be known. 
The moment was critical, but John Lamb — by whose 
influence undoubtedly the meeting had been called — at 
once saw through the artifice. He immediately arose and 
addressed the Assembly. After giving a summary of the 
grievances which had brought them together, he read the 
act of Parliament (which prescribed the payment of the 



I r DEEi 











HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 241 

duty, if the article was landed), and then asked, "Shall 
the tea be landed V 1 A unanimous " NO !" (repeated three 
times) clearly showed the mind of his audience. 

But this spirit of resistance to Parliamentary usurpa- 
tion was not shared in by the Assembly, whose members 
were more subservient than ever. Notwithstanding the 
conduct of the Governor, they did not hesitate, in the 
spring session, to vote five thousand pounds toward 
rebuilding the Government House, which had been 
recently destroyed by fire ; and, in response to his open- 
ing speech, in which they were informed that he had been 
called home to confer with the ministry in relation to the 
New Hampshire grants, they expressed the hope that his 
return to a grateful people would be speedy. Indeed, as 
Mr. Dunlap remarks, if the number of compliments paid 
him upon his departure were any test, it would seem as if he 
was very much beloved. Several of the loyalists residing 
in the city gave him a public dinner ; General Haldimand, 
who had succeeded Gage as Commander-in-Chief, honored 
him with a ball ; corporations and societies vied in pre- 
senting addresses ; King's College created him a doctor in 
civil law ; and the General Assembly tendered him an 
address, in which, after expressing their appreciation of 
the uprightness and integrity of his conduct, they added, 
in yet more fulsome eulogy, that they thought it their 
duty, as the representatives of a free and happy people, to 
pay this tribute of applause and acknowledgment to a 
Governor who had so eminently distinguished himself by 
his constant attention to their care and prosperity. The 
Governor, in return, thanked them for their " truly loyal 
and affectionate address ; " and having, on the 19th of 
March, summoned the General Assembly to his house, 
he gave his assent to the acts that had been passed, and 
closed the session by prorogation. 

Thus ended the third session of the Legislature of the 

31 



242 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

colony and the administration of Governor Try on, without 
having in a single instance come into collision with his 
excellency, or even with the legislative council, save in 
the matter of a disagreement between the two bodies in 
respect to an amendment to the militia bill, proposed by 
the council, but to which the House disagreed. An 
attempt was made in the council, on motion of Mr. Smith, 
to obtain a conference, but the proposition was voted 
down. The amendment referred to, according to the rea- 
sons of dissent recorded by Mr. Smith, was an invasion of 
the royal prerogative ; and, had the bill been passed in the 
shape insisted upon by the House, Mr. Smith maintained 
that it would have received the Governor's negative. 
According to the reasons of dissent, the rejection of the 
amendment of the council evinced a determination by the 
House to control the action of the Governor in command- 
ing the services of the militia, while there were indications 
that their services would be required to quell insurrection 
in the New Hampshire grants. Mr. Smith set forth that 
a similar amendment sent to the House in 1772 had been 
concurred in by that body, and that no reason was per- 
ceptible justifying a change of sentiments upon the ques- 
tion ; and he thought a friendly conference might induce 
the House to yield. Other reasons for his assent were 
given ; and he referred to open surmises abroad, that the 
Legislature was losing its confidence in the Governor, and 
the loss of the bill witii the provision in question might 
be viewed as an evidence that the Legislature had not 
been " sincere in the testimonials they had given and 
justly awarded to his excellency for an administration 
wise and impartial, fair and generous, and steadily con- 
ducted upon principles unbiased by party feuds, and 
acknowledged to be equally friendly to the rights of the 
Crown and the weal of the colony." But the conference 
was not asked, and, in fact, there was no collision. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 243 

This profound tranquility which had succeeded the 
election of the present General Assembly in 1770, was the 
more remarkable for the raging of the political elements 
all around New York, and from the circumstances under 
which the preceding Assembly had been dissolved, and 
the feelings attending the new election. The preceding 
Assembly had been dissolved for its strong declaration of 
those constitutional principles which had been planted in 
the bosoms of the colonists from their settlement, and 
which were striking deeper root every hour; and yet, 
neither under Sir Henry Moore, who had dissolved the 
preceding and summoned the present Legislature, nor 
under Lord Dunmore, nor under Governor Tryon, had a 
breeze moved upon the political waters, so far as the Leg- 
islature was concerned, save only by its concurrence in 
the Virginia resolutions of May, 1769 ; nor did that act 
of concurrence occasion any visible agitation. But it was 
the deep, solemn calm, which often precedes the lightning 
and the whirlwind ! 

But the storm was to break sooner than was antici- 
pated. The utterances of James Otis and Patrick Henry 
had created a tide of public feeling which ordinary barri- 
ers were powerless to resist. Events followed each other 
in startling rapidity. On the night of the 22d of April, 
1774, the Sons of Liberty, following the example 
of their Boston neighbors, and, like them, also dis- 
guised as Mohawks, threw over a cargo of teaj brought 
by the Nancy, into the waters of New York Bay. New 
York, imitating the example of her sister colonies, formed 
a Provincial Congress in opposition to the regular Assem- 
bly, whose members still remained lukewarm, and ap- 
pointed five delegates to the Continental Congress, which 
had already convened in Philadelphia. Tryon, in amaze 
at the turn affairs had taken, sailed, as we have seen, for 
England, on the 7th of April, 1774, to represent to the 



244 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

ministry the alarming state of things in the colonies. The 
Province of New York was ordered by the Continental 
Congress to contribute her quota of three thousand men 
to the general defense. The battle of Lexington had been 
followed by the battle of Bunker Hill ; the brave Mont- 
gomery was preparing to undertake his ill-fated expedition 
against Quebec ; and Putnam, and Heath, and Pomeroy, 
and a score of brave spirits, laid close siege to Boston. 

Such was the condition of affairs when Washington, 
on the 21st of June, 1775, set out from Philadelphia for 
Boston, with the purpose of taking New York in 
his way. All disguise had now been thrown off; 
and it was his purpose to place that important post under 
the command of one of his generals upon whom he could 
rely. But the approach of Washington toward the city 
threw the Provincial Congress into a quandary. It had 
usurped the powers of Governor Tryon in his absence, 
while professing, at the same time, a semi-loyalty to the 
parent Government. To add, also, to its perplexity, 
Tryon, who had just arrived from England, was in the 
lower bay, and might arrive at the wharf at any moment. 
A middle course was therefore adopted. The militia was 
ordered out, and the commanding officer directed " to pay 
military honors to whichever of the distinguished func- 
tionaries should first arrive." As it chanced, Washington 
arrived first on the 25th, and was escorted into the city 
by a committee of the Provincial Congress, by whom he 
had been met at Newark. As soon as the customary mili- 
tary honors had been paid, Peter Van Burgh Livingston, 
as President of the New York Congress, advanced and 
delivered a congratulatory address. " Confiding in you, 
sir," said the speaker, " and in the worthy generals under 
your command, we have the most nattering hopes of suc- 
cess in the glorious struggle for American liberty, and the 
fullest assurances that whenever this important contest 



246 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

rights which we enjoyed by general consent before the 
close of the last war ; we desire no more than a continua- 
tion of the ancient government, to which we are enti- 
tled by the principles of the British Constitution, and by 
which alone can be secured to us the rights of English- 
men." The address was presented to the House of Com- 
mons by Mr. Burke, but was never called up. Incensed 
at this insult to themselves, those faint hearts in the 
Assembly who had heretofore wavered, now boldly joined 
the patriots ; and when, on the 10th of July, 1776, 
the news was received in the city of the Declaration 
of Independence, the enthusiasm was well-nigh universal 
— almost all hastening to aid General Putnam (who had 
succeeded Lee in the command) in fortifying the city. 
The principal fortifications were as follow : A grand bat- 
tery of twenty- three guns was erected directly south of 
the Bowling Green ; McDougall's battery of four guns 
stood on a little eminence to the west of Trinity Church. 
On the East-River side were Coenties' battery, Water- 
bury's battery, Badlam's battery of eight guns near the 
Jewish burial-ground on Chatham Street, and the Inde- 
pendent battery on a slight elevation on the corner of the 
present Grand and Center Streets. " Breast-works were 
also erected at Peck, Beekman, Burling, and Old Slips ; 
at the Coffee-house, the Exchange, and in Broad Street." 
Ditches were cut across the island from the East to the 
North River ; and, at the same time, strong fortifications 
were thrown up on Governor's Island, Paulus Hook (Jer- 
sey City), Brooklyn Heights, and Long Island. 

These fortifications were erected at the suggestion of 
the Commander-in-Chief, who, rightly anticipating, on the 
evacuation of Boston by General Howe, that his next point 
of attack would be New York, detached General Greene, 
with a portion of the army, to put Long Island and the 
harbor of New York in a posture of defense. Washington 




A C r».,l,;„„, /■/.«;■ 

cacao %Jf^£ 

" j ul 









' /i i \ - 

O R K S ri, i* r *2i. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 247 

followed soon afterward himself, and established his head- 
quarters in the city. Having been joined by his brother, 
Lord Howe, as commander of the fleet at Halifax, General 
(afterward Sir William) Howe arrived with his reinforce- 
ments off Sandy Hook — the latter on the 25th of June, 
1776, and the former on the 12th of the following month. 
General Clinton arriving at about the same time from the 
unsuccessful attempt against Charleston with Admiral 
Hotham, the combined forces of the enemy now amounted 
to nearly twenty-four thousand men, including the Hes- 
sians. 

On the 22d of August, the British army landed upon 
Long Island at Gravesend. The American army, consist- 
ing of fifteen thousand men, under Sullivan, was encamped 
in the neighborhood of Brooklyn. The battle of Long 
Island, which was severely, though ineffectually, contested 
by the American forces under Sullivan and Lord Stirling, 
was fought on the 27th of August. On the 30th, the 




KIP S BAT HOUSE. 



Americans effected a masterly retreat across the East 
River to New York. The enemy made immediate dispo- 
sitions to attack the city ; and a hasty evacuation was 
deemed advisable. The British fleet was divided into two 
squadrons, one of which entered the East and the other 
the North River. Under cover of the former, Sir Henry 
Clinton crossed from Long Island and landed at Kip's 
Bay with such celerity that the Americans fled in disorder. 



248 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Indeed, the evacuation resembled rather a flight than a 
retreat — all the heavy artillery, military stores, baggage, 
and provisions, falling into the hands of the enemy. A 
large portion of the American forces, at that time, con- 
sisted of militia, the conduct of which was scandalous 
beyond endurance. They deserted, not only in small 
numbers, but in companies and squadrons, whenever they 
could ; and their conduct, in the face of the enemy, or 
rather when running from the faces of the enemy, was 
most cowardly. So disorderly was their demeanor, and 
so like poltroons did they behave when flying from Sir 
Henry Clinton, that even Washington himself lost his 
patience, and was excited to a degree of hot exasperation. 
In writing from Harlem Heights to a friend, General 
Greene said that " two brigades of militia ran away from 
about fifty men, leaving the Commander-in-Chief on the 
ground, within eighty yards of the enemy, so vexed with 
the conduct of his troops that he sought death rather than 
life. His attempts to stop them were fruitless. He drew 
his sword and threatened to run them through, and 
cocked and snapped his pistols.* But all his exertions 
were to no purpose." In a letter upon the subject of this 
infamous conduct of the militia, to the President of Con- 
gress, the Commander-in-Chief declared that, " were he 
called to give his opinion upon oath, he should say that 
militia did more injury to the service than good." 

General Greene strongly urged the destruction of the 
city by fire — a measure afterward so effectively adopted 
by Count Rostopchin, Governor of the ancient capital 
of Muscovy, to arrest the career of Napoleon — that the 
enemy might be deprived of the advantage of establishing 
their winter-quarters therein. His reasons for this meas- 
ure were sound, and ought, doubtless, to have been 

* Mr. Bancroft, it is true, discredits this statement ; but, it seems to me, 
without sufficient reason. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



249 



adopted. Washington, also, was believed to be of the 
same opinion, especially as two-thirds of the property 
which it was proposed to destroy, belonged to undisguised 
Loyalists. But Congress would not allow the sacrifice; 
and, on the loth of September, 1776, the City of New 




VIEW FROM FORT LEE. 



York was in full possession of the British — General 
Washington having retired with the army to King's 
Bridge. 

For several weeks, Washington occupied Harlem 
Heights above Manhattanville, residing meanwhile at the 

32 



250 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

house of Colonel Roger Morris (between 160th and 161st 
Streets) ; while Colonel Cadwallader, with eight hun- 
dred men, was posted along the lower lines which crossed 
the island. At length, on the 15th of November, an 
attack being made by the enemy under Lord Percy, Cad- 
wallader held them in check on Harlem Plains for more 
than an hour and a half, until Washington had been able 
to cross the Hudson from Fort Lee, reconnoitre the 
position, and return in safety. But the gallant efforts 
of Cadwallader were of no avail ; for Lord Percy, having 
been reinforced, ruined the position of his adversary, 
and, compelling him to retreat to Fort Washington 
(already in possession of the British), made him prisoner. 
The capture of Fort Washington compelled that of Fort 
Lee. " Washington retreated with his troops through the 
Jerseys, and the struggle for liberty in New York was 
over." 

It would seem, however, as if the idea of firing the 
city — though given up by Washington and Greene — was 
still cherished by some of the residents of the city. 
Scarcely had the British fairly taken possession, when, on 
the night of the 20th of September — only six days after 
they had marched in — a terrific fire broke out, which was 
not subdued until one thousand houses, or about one- 
fourth of the city, were reduced to ashes. * The fire was 
first discovered in a low dram-shop, tenanted by abandoned 
men and women ; but, in a few minutes afterward, flames 
were seen to break forth from several other buildings, 
lying in different directions, at the same moment. For 
some time previous, the weather had been dry ; and at the 
moment, a brisk southerly wind prevailing, and the build- 

* Hugh Gaine, in his Universal Register for 1787, states that hefore this 
fire the city contained ahout four thousand two hundred houses, and thirty 
thousand inhabitants. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



251 



ings being of wood and covered with shingles, the flames 
soon caught the neighboring houses and spread with incon- 
ceivable rapidity. The fire swept up Broad and Beaver 
Streets to Broadway, and thence onward, consuming all 




?»si£i- 



VIEW ON WASHINGTON HEIGHTS. 



that portion of the town lying on the North River, until 
the flames were stopped by the grounds of King's (Colum- 
bia) College at Mortkile Street, now Barclay. St. Paul's 



252 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Church, at one time, was in great danger. Fortunately, 
however, the roof was flat, with a balustrade on the eaves. 
Taking advantage of this circumstance, a number of citi- 
zens went into the balustrade and extinguished the flakes 
of fire as they fell on the roof. Trinity Church, with the 
Lutheran Chapel, on the opposite corner of Rector Street, 
was also destroyed. The Rev. Dr. Inglis was then rector 
of Trinity ; and with this sacred edifice, his parsonage and 
the Charity School — two large buildings — were consumed, 
entailing a loss of church property to the value of twenty- 
five thousand pounds. The organ of Trinity, alone, cost 
eight hundred and fifty pounds. 

At the present day, it is difficult to say whether the 
fire was or was not the result of incendiarism on the part 
of disaffected Americans. Even reliable contemporaneous 
writers differ widely in their opinion on the subject, some 
affirming positively that the city was set on fire, and others, 
again, quite as positively affirming the contrary. For 
ourselves, we are inclined to believe that the fire was the 
result of a deliberate design ; nor, if the newspapers and 
private correspondence of the day can be believed, is there 
much room left for doubt. According to these authorities, 
one man was seized in the act of setting fire to the col- 
lege, who acknowledged that he had been employed for 
the purpose. A New-Eugland captain, who was seized at 
the same time with matches in his pocket, also acknowl- 
edged the same. One White, a carpenter, was observed to 
cut the leather buckets which conveyed the water. " The 
next day, Saturday," says Steadman, in his history of the 
American War, "a great many cart-loads of bundles of 
pine-sticks dipped in brimstone were found concealed in 
cellars of houses to which the incendiaries had not had 
time to set fire." " The rebels," says the Rev. Charles 
Inglis, in writing on the same subject, a few days after, to 
the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel 




gwanmn 



TRINITY CHURCH. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 



253 



in Foreign Parts, "carried off all the bells in the city, 
partly to convert them into cannon and partly to prevent 
notice being given speedily of the destruction they medi- 
tated against the city by fire, when it began. * * Several 
rebels secreted themselves in the houses to execute the 
diabolical purpose of destroying the city." Notwithstand- 
ing, however, this seeming mass of testimony, it was found 
impossible to obtain legal proof sufficient to fasten the act 




THE OLD SUGAR-HOUSE IX LIBERTY STREET. 

upon any particular individual — for all who had been 
caught at the time with matches, &c , had been killed on 
the spot by the enraged soldiery — and the result was, 
that several of the citizens, who had been arrested and 
imprisoned on the charge of being the incendiaries, were 
acquitted. 



254 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

The history of New York city during its occupation 
by the British is not one that Americans can recall with 
pleasure. True it is that this period has invested a few 
of the old buildings, yet standing, with interest ; but these 
very associations are of a saddening, melancholy nature, 
and only calculated to make Americans, even at the pres- 
ent day, blush at the remembrance of the fact that British 
officers — having their blood, and the same ancestry, and 
speaking the same tongue — could ever have been guilty 
of such horrid atrocities upon the persons of inoffensive 
captives. Of the numerous prison-pens in the city during 
the Revolution (among which was the old Sugar-House), 
only two yet stand, like charred and battered monu- 
ments of cruelty and tyranny — the North Dutch Church, 
on William Street, and the Middle Dutch Church (the 
present Post-office). In the former edifice, eight hun- 
dred prisoners were incarcerated, without fuel or bed- 
ding, during two of the coldest winters New York has 
ever known.* Their provisions were scanty, and of the 
poorest quality ; and, as a natural and probably anticipated 
consequence, many died from cold and starvation. " We 
never," says Oliver Woodruff, one of the prisoners, "drew 
as much provisions for three days' allowance as a man 
would eat at a common meal. I was there three months 
during that inclement season, and never saw any fire, 
except what was in the lamps of the city. There was not 
a pane of glass in the windows, and nothing to keep out 
the cold, except the iron grates." ' " The allowance," says 

* During one of these winters— that of 1779-80— the river and bay between 
Cortlandt Street, New Jersey, and Staten Island were frozen over for forty days. 
Hundreds of people crossed daily on the ice, which was so thick that artillery 
was also conveyed across. 

f It is very true that, at times, the British themselves were often in want 
of food, and suffered from cold, and also that provisions were dear ; still, that 
need not have prevented them from giving the prisoners bedclothes, and min- 
istering to their necessities, and alleviating their condition as far as possible 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 255 

Adolph Meyer, another prisoner, " was one loaf of bread, 
one quart of peas, half a pint of rice, and one and a half 
pounds of pork, for six days. Many prisoners died from 
want ; and others were reduced to such wretchedness as 
to attract the attention of common prostitutes, from whom 
they received considerable assistance. No care was taken 
of the sick ; and if any died they were thrown at the door 
of the prison, and lay there till the next day, when they 
were put on a cart and drawn out to the intrenchments, 
beyond the Jews' burial-ground, where they were in- 
terred by their fellow-prisoners, conducted thither for that 
purpose. The dead were thrown into a hole promiscu- 
ously, without the usual rites of sepulcher." But the state 
of things was even worse in the Middle Dutch Church (the 
present Post-office), into which three thousand prisoners 
were crowded. " Here," says John Pintard, an eye-wit- 
ness of these scenes, " the prisoners taken on Long Island 
and at Fort Washington— sick, wounded, and well— were 
all indiscriminately huddled together by hundreds and 
thousands, large numbers of whom died by disease ; and 
many were undoubtedly poisoned by their inhuman attend- 
ants for the sake of their watches and silver buckles." 
" The beds of the prisoners," says Dunlap, writing at the 
time, " were straw, intermixed with vermin. For many 
weeks, the dead-cart visited the prison every morning, into 
which from eight to twelve corpses were flung and piled 
up, then dumped into ditches in the outskirts of the city." 
The bones of the unfortunate victims of British cruelty, 
thus disposed of, were collected after the Revolution, and 
buried with proper funeral rites.* 

* But none of these prison-pens were so horrible as the Jersey prison- 
ship. " This vessel was originally a British line-of-battle ship, built in 1736, 
and carried sixty guns. She had done good service in the war with France, 
and had several times served as a part of the Mediterranean squadron. In the 
spring of 1776, she sailed for America as one of the fleet of Commodore Hotham, 
and arrived at Sandy Hook in the month of August. She was subsequently 



256 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

But while the American prisoners were thus languish- 
ing in prison, the British officers and their wives were 
passing their time in a round of gayety and frivolity. 
The best view, perhaps, of the interior and social life of 
New York at this time — now become in reality a British 
city — is given in the letters of Mrs. General Riedesel.* 
This lady was the wife of the German general who com- 
manded the Brunswick troops at the battle of Saratoga, 
where he was captured with Burgoyne. After her hus- 
band was exchanged, she spent nearly two years in New 
York city (1779-80), and her letters to her mother at this 
time are of great interest. From these letters we make 
the following extracts: 

" Finally, late one evening, at the end of November, 

1779, we reached New York, where my husband, who had 

gone ahead of us, had already arrived before me. 

1TT9 

A soldier who, at the gateway, had been ordered 
to show us the way, conducted us to a very great and 



used as a store-ship, then employed as a hospital-ship, and was finally, in the 
winter of 1779-80, fitted up as a prison-ship, and anchored near the Walla- 
bout in the East River, near what is now the Navy Yard, where she lay until 
the close of the war, when the day of retribution arrived, and she was broken 
up and sunk beneath the muddy waters of the East River to rise no more. 
Dismantled of her sails and stripped of her rigging, with port-holes closed, 
with no spar but the bowsprit, and a derrick to take in supplies, her small lone 
fiao- at the stern became the appropriate but unconscious signal of the dreadful 
sufferino- that raged within. Hundreds of captured prisoners were packed into 
this small vessel, where, with but one meal of coarse and filthy food per diem, 
without hammocks, or physician, or medicines, or means of cleanliness, they 
wretchedly perished. Thousands of emaciated skeletons were, during these 
perilous years, cast into the billows of the bay. or left half covered in the sand- 
banks and trenches. The bones of the dead lay exposed along the beach, dry- 
ing and bleaching in the sun, whitening the shore until washed away by the 
surging tides. About twelve thousand prisoners are believed to have died on 
these vessels, most of whom were young men, the strength and flower of their 
country." 

* Letters and Journals relating to the War of the American Revolution, and 
the Capture of the German Troops at Saratoga, by Mrs. General Riedesel. 
Translated from the original German, by William L. Stone. Albany: J. 
Munsell. 1867. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 257 

beautiful house, where we found everything prepared for 
our reception ; and, better than all, a good supper. I was 
too much occupied in putting the children to bed, and too 
tired to inquire where I was, and supposed I was in a 
public-house. My husband, who had taken tea with Gen- 
eral Cornwallis, came home late. The next morning, a 
servant came in to ask me what I desired for dinner, and 
how many visitors I would probably have daily at table. I 
replied that as my husband did not dine at home, I should 
not need more than three dishes for six persons, namely : 
myself, my children, my women-servants, and the pastor, 
Mylius, the chaplain of my husband's regiment, whom we 
retained in our family, and who gave my children instruc- 
tion in everything useful. He was a man of piety, and 
of excellent character and good humor, and the children 
and we all loved him very much. I was then told that 
the order had been given to serve up on my table every 
day six large and four small dishes. Being still under 
the impression that I was in a tavern, I decidedly forbade 
this profusion, as I dreaded the bill. But I soon discov- 
ered that I was staying at the house of the Governor, 
General Tryon, who had forbidden them to tell me where 
I had been taken, through fear that I would not accept of 
his house.* This noble-minded man, moreover, in order 

* The site of the present (1871) Bank of New York. 

" On the night of December 29th, 1773, the Government House accidentally 
caught fire. So rapid was the progress of the flames, that in a few moments 
after the alarm was given a thick cloud of smoke and flame pervaded the whole 
building, and in less than two hours it was entirely consumed. From this 
dreadful conflagration, nothing in the building, except a few articles of furni- 
ture taken from one of the parlors, was saved. The manner in which the fire 
originated was not discovered. The deep snow which covered the roofs of the 
other buildings in the city contributed to their protection, and the fire depart- 
ment of the city showed great activity in preventing the progress of the flames. 
Governor Tryon was a resident of the Government House in the fort at the time 
of its destruction, and was a heavy loser by the event. He afterward resided 
in a house on the corner of Wall and William Streets, the same house having 
been subsequently, and until late years, occupied by the Bank of New York." — 
Valentine's Manual for 18G4, page 643. 
33 



258 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

to avoid mv thanks, crossed over to Lone; Island, where 
he had a provisional command. All my wishes were 
anticipated, and I was only in continual fear lest I should 
abuse so much kindness. I also received a call from Gen- 
eral Patterson, the commandant of the city, who told me 
that they were still busy with the arrangement of the 
house, which we were to have as our own residence. Lord 
Cornwallis and General Clinton likewise came to see me. 
The former went off soon afterward upon an expedition. 
The latter offered me a country-seat, of which he had the 
disposal, where I might have my children inoculated with 
the small-pox, an operation which it would be dangerous 
to have performed in the city, as that disease was raging 
there violently. I accepted his offer with much satisfac- 
tion, and we made all necessary preparations to go there. 
I gave our cook ten guineas to purchase all kinds of pro- 
visions. But when he very soon came back and asked for 
more money, I learned, to my surprise, that the money I 
had given him would scarcely last for two days, so dear 
was everything, even the commonest thing. For example, 
one pound of meat, reckoning according to our money, cost 
twelve groschen ; * one pound of butter, eighteen groschen ; 
one turkey, four rix-thalers ; a fowl, twenty groschen ; an 
egg, four groschen ; a quart of milk, six groschen ; a bushel 
of potatoes, two rix-thalers ; a half bushel of turnips, two 
florins ; ten oysters, eight groschen ; and six onions, one 
rix-thaler. But what was there left for me to do but to 
bear it with patience ? t 

* A groschen, as lias been mentioned in a preceding note, is a fraction over 
three American cents. 

f All contemporaneous accounts fully corroborate the statement of our 
authoress. The rich in the city at first strove to keep up their six courses, tbeir 
three-side services, and their profusion of fish, flesh, aud fowl ; but at length 
their resources failed. Many articles of food could no longer be obtained, and 
others were so dear as to exhaust the means of the wealthiest. A turkey was 
cheap at four dollars. Good meat could seldom be procured, and vegetables 
were extravagantly dear. Fifty dollars, says an eye-witness, would not feed a 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 259 

" One day a general was announced. I received him, 
and in the course of conversation he asked me, among 
other things, whether I was satisfied with my quarters. 
My heart was too full of thankfulness for all the kindness 
that had been shown me, not to give full vent to my feel- 
ings in this regard, and I at last expressed the wish to 
know personally my noble benefactor who had treated me 
with so much delicacy. He laughed, and just at that 
moment my husband stepped in, and said to me, " This is 
the man who has shown us so much kindness." I was so 
delighted at seeing him, that I could not find words to 
express my feelings. Upon seeing my emotion, the man 
was very much affected. I have invariably received from 
him the greatest proofs of his friendship. 

" The country residence of General Clinton, where we 
went, was an hour's ride from the city. The grounds 
were beautiful, as was also the house ; but the latter was 
arranged more for a summer residence, and, as we had 
come there in the month of December, we suffered much 
from the cold. Notwithstanding this, however, the inocu- 
lation was perfectly successful. Accordingly, as it was 
now completed, and we had nothing more to fear from 
the infection, we got ourselves in readiness to return to 
the city, and sent our cook and the rest of our servants 
ahead to prepare everything for our arrival, which we 
expected would be upon the following day. During the 
night, however, we had such a terrible storm that we 

family for two days. Sir Henry Clinton entreated the farmers of the vicinity 
to bring in provisions, but in vain. Xor was he more successful in the forag- 
ing parties he sent out. At sight of the enemy, the alarm was given. The 
farmers of Westport and Southport, of Elizabethtown and Railway, hastily 
buried their corn and oats beneath the snow, and old family furniture was car- 
ried off at midnight and hidden in the depths of the forest. The British foraging 
parties accordingly found the barns empty, the cattle driven off, and the farm- 
houses deserted. In their rage, the foragers set fire to the old homesteads and 
desolated whole districts, thus increasing the general misery without accom- 
plishing the least good. 



260 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

believed the whole house would be overturned. As it was, 
an entire balustrade actually fell down with a dreadful 
crash, and on getting up the next morning we saw that 
on account of snow having fallen during the night four or 
five feet on the level, and eight feet in drifts, it would be 
utterly impossible to venture forth without sledges. I 
therefore went to work to hunt up all that I could find 
for our dinner. An old hen that had been forgotten served 
us for soup, and some potatoes which the gardener gave 
us, with some salt meat that still remained over from our 
stock of provisions, made up the entire meal for more than 
fourteen persons, which number we then were. 

" On our return to New York, I found, to my great 
amazement, our new dwelling fitted up throughout with 
mahogany furniture. I was at first frightened at the 
expense which this would occasion. But Captain Willoe 
informed me that the entire cost would be defrayed by 
the Governor, and that the Commandant, General Patter- 
son, considered himself fortunate in being able to justify 
the confidence which I had placed in the English nation. 
To render this remark intelligible, I must here state that 
I had assured him, when he consulted me upon the 
arrangement of our house, that I would leave everything 
entirely to the English, from whom, up to the present 
time, I had received sincere kindness and courtesy, and 
who certainly would still preserve toward us that full 
confidence which they had shown toward us. 

" They overwhelmed us with distinguished marks of 
courtesy and friendship, for which we had, in a great meas- 
ure, to thank General Phillips, who, in New York, was 
very much beloved, and was so strong a friend of ours that 
he declared that whatever was done for us would flatter 
him more than as if done for himself. I had also the 
good fortune, during our stay, to make many friends on 
my own account. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 261 

" As the birthday of the Queen of England was 
approaching (which really comes in summer, but, as the 
King's birthday also comes in that season, is celebrated in 
winter, to give more custom to the trades-people, as every 
one upon those days appears at court in gala-dress), they 
wished to celebrate the day with a great fete; and as it 
was the general wish — partly to please General Philips, 
and partly to make me forget my own suffering — to confer 
on me a distinguished honor, they desired me to be queen 
of the ball. In order to bring this about, they persuaded 
the wife of General Cornwallis's adjutant — who, as an 
English lady of noble birth, would have had precedence 
over me — to remain at home, on the ground that she was 
near her confinement. When at length the great day 
arrived, all the ladies assembled at Governor Tryon's, 
where they received me with all ceremony. The General 
introduced me to all the ladies, some of whom were envi- 
ous of the honor which was shown me. But I immediately 
declared that I received this distinction only on account of 
the day, as they had conferred on me the honor of repre- 
senting the Queen, and that in future I would give place to 
those ladies who were older than I. As there were quite 
a number present who were my elders, my explanation 
conciliated them. Their countenances, accordingly, quickly 
brightened up, and I was soon upon a pleasant footing 
with the whole company. 

" At six o'clock in the afternoon I was obliged to seat 
myself on a carriage with Generals Tryon and Patterson, 
to be driven to the ball, where we were received with 
kettle-drums and trumpets. 

" At supper, 1 was obliged, as I represented the Queen, 
to sit under a canopy, and drink the first toast. I was 
certainly much touched at all the marks of friendship I 
received, although extremely tired ; still, in order to show 
my gratitude, I cheerfully stayed as long as possible, and 



262 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

remained until two o'clock in the morning. Not only on 
this occasion, but during the whole of my sojourn in this 
place, I was loaded with kindness ; and I passed the 
remainder of the winter very pleasantly, with the excep- 
tion of suffering very much from the cold, as the commis- 
sary had not had a sufficient quantity of wood cut. To 
save expense, he had this work done by his negro slaves ; 
and the winter setting in earlier than usual, and being 
impossible, as the river was frozen half over, to bring in 
wood either by boats or sledges, many of the garrison suf- 
fered for fuel. We, indeed, received an order for it ; but 
how did that help the matter, since there was no wood 
to be had '] We were, therefore, often obliged to borrow 
wood of General Tryon for Saturday and Sunday, which 
we would return on Monday if we received any. The 
cold was so intense that I frequently made the children 
lie in bed in order to keep them warm. Wood could not 
often be purchased for money ; and if by chance a little 
was for sale, it cost ten pounds by the cord. I have 
myself paid one piaster (which is a crown with us) for a 
single stick. The poor were obliged to burn fat, in order 
to warm themselves and cook their meals.* 

" One day I was at the house of the lady of General 
Cornwallis's aid-de-camp, who had been confined, and com- 
plained bitterly of this lack of wood ; whereupon, she 
promised to send me some coals, which I could return at 
my own convenience. I showed so much joy at this, that 
a certain major, named Brown, who happened to be pres- 
ent, and was attached to the commissariat, and who had 



* " The wealthy," writes a contemporary, " shivered for cold in their splendid 
apartments. In vain did Sir Henry Clinton issue proclamations to the farmers 
of Long Island to send in their wood. In vain did he dispatch foraging parties 
to cut down the forests on the large estates of the patriots William Floyd and 
William Smith, the patroons of Long Island. The demand for fuel could not 
be supplied, and the Baroness Riedesel, the caressed of all the army, suffered 
severely in that inclement winter." 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 263 

already expressed much sympathy at our want of wood, 
was so much affected that he immediately left the room. 

" The next day, as I was looking out of the window, 
I saw quite a number of wagons full of chopped trees, 
standing still in the street. Each wagon contained two 
cords of wood. I went into the room where the pastor, 
Mylius, sat with the children before the fire-place, in which 
the last stick was burning, and said to him : ' Never before 
have I been envious ; but now, the distress and pain which 
these poor children suffer, make me so ; for just now there 
has come to our very door four wagons filled with wood. 
How happy would I be if I only had some of it ! ' 
Scarcely had I thus spoken, when a servant brought me 
a message from Major Brown, stating that he had sent me 
these loads of wood with his compliments, and begging us 
to send to him whenever we should again be out of fuel. 
Imagine my joy, and my eagerness to thank our guardian 
angel. I had scarcely seen his face, as the lying-in cham- 
ber of milady had been so dark. Some days after, I was 
at a ball where he also was expected to be present. He 
had been described to me as a man with a very prominent 
turned-up nose. For such a person, therefore, I looked 
attentively; but I was obliged to look for a long time, 
because the excellent man kept continually out of the 
way, that I might have no opportunity to thank him. At 
last, however, I found him, and thanked him right heartily. 
He then told me that up that time he had known nothing 
of our necessity, but that when he heard my story he 
had not been able to go to sleep quietly the whole night, 
through fear that the dispositions which he had already 
made for our relief would not arrive sufficiently speedy. 
These 'dispositions' consisted in giving the order to cut 
down some of the trees in the great avenue * in front of the 

* Probably, the present Wall Street. All the principal highways of the city 
were adorned at this period with luxuriant s 1 ade-trees. A celebrated traveler. 



2G4 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

city; and when this proceeding was objected to on the 
ground that it would make considerable damage, he 
replied, that it was much better to spare a few trees than 
to have a family, who had served the King with so much 
zeal, suffer from want. He further told me that in future 
we must, under all circumstances, whenever anything was 
w anting that it belonged to the commissary to supply, 
apply directly to him. This acquaintance was of great 
advantage to us. My husband was supplied with many 
kinds of provisions ; with Indian meal, part of which we 
used for bread and part for cake, and also with salted 
meat, which latter article, however, was entirely useless 
to us, as we received more than we could consume ; and 
it often was so uneatable that I gave it away to get rid 
of it, especially since our servants were also supplied with 
the same kind of food. The major, accordingly, advised 
us to pursue the same plan in this regard as the other 
generals, viz. : to exchange our meat for boxes of tallow 
and candles of spermaceti (which burn better and are 
more beautiful than those of wax), and also for butter, 
which they did gladly, as they were obliged to supply the 
soldiers with meat. By this means, we saved considera- 
ble. We were now no longer troubled for the want of 

who visited New York just previous to the arrival of Governor Tryon, thus 
describes the various kinds then growing in the city : " In the chief streets there 
are trees planted, which, in the summer, give them a fine appearance, and, dur- 
ing the excessive heat at that time, afford a cooling shade. I found it extremely 
pleasant to walk in the town, for it seemed quite like a garden. The trees which 
are planted for this purpose arc chiefly of two kinds ; the water-beech is the most 
numerous, and gives an agreeable shade in summer by its large and numerous 
leaves. The locust-tree is likewise frequent ; its fine leaves and the odorifer- 
ous scent which exhales from its flowers make it very proper for being planted 
in the streets near the houses and in the gardens. There are likewise lime- 
trees and elms in these walks, but they are not, by far, so frequent as the 
others. One seldom meets with trees of the same sort adjoining each other, they 
being in general placed alternately." The last of these trees in Wall Street 
was cut down in 18G6. A portion of its trunk (preserved as a sacred relic) is to 
be seen in the old English chop-house, on Thames Street, known as " Old 
Tom's." 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 265 

wood, for they broke to pieces an old and worthless ship 
in order to furnish us with fuel, and from this time we 
received weekly two cords of fire-wood. 

" Throughout the whole winter, Generals Phillips, 
Try on, and Patterson were our constant friends and guests, 
and every week we gave a gentleman's dinner party. 
This was all that we could afford to do, as everything was 
so terribly high in the city. At the end of the winter, 
General Tryon sailed for England ; but, just before his 
departure, he sent to my house magnificent furniture, tap- 
estry, carpets, and curtains, besides a set of silk hangings 
for an entire room. Never shall I forget the many marks 
of friendship which I have received from almost every one 
of this excellent nation ; and it will always be to me a 
source of satisfaction to be able at any time to be of use 
to the English, as I have learned by experience how 
pleasant it is to receive kindness from foreigners. 

" About this time our friendly relations began with our 
excellent friend General Clinton, who was the General- 
in-Chief of the English army in the Southern provinces of 
America. As is the case with every Englishman, it was 
at first very difficult for our acquaintance to ripen into 
intimacy. His first call upon us was one of ceremony, as 
he came as General-in-Chief, attended by his entire staff. 
As his general appearance and conversation were agreea- 
ble, I said to his friend, General Phillips, that I regretted 
that he had treated us with so much ceremony, and that 
a more friendly manner would have better accorded with 
our feelings. Afterward he invited us out to his country- 
seat to spend the summer, an invitation which was 
accepted. His country residence was magnificent, a most 
beautiful situation, orchard and meadows, and the Hudson 
River running directly in front of the house. Everything 
was placed at our disposal, including fruits of the most 

delicious flavor ; indeed, of this latter article we had more 
34 



266 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

than we could eat. Our servants feasted on peaches even 
to satiety, and our horses, which roamed through the 
orchards, eagerly ate the fruit from the trees, disdaining 
that upon the ground, which every evening we had gath- 
ered up and given to the pigs to fatten them. It seems 
almost incredible, but nevertheless it is true, that with 
nothing but this fruit we fattened six pigs, the flesh of 
which was capital, only the fat was somewhat soft. 
Peach, apricot, and other fruit-trees are raised here with- 
out espaliers, and have trunks as thick as those of ordinary 
trees. 

" Not far from us were the Hell Gates, which are dan- 
gerous breakers for those ships that pass through them up 
the river. We often saw ships in danger, but only one 
was wrecked and went to pieces during our stay at this 
place. 

" General Clinton came often to visit us, but in hunt- 
er's dress, accompanied by only one aid-de-camp. On one 
of these occasions he said to us : 'I feel confident that you 
look upon me more as a friend than a stranger ; and as I 
feel the same toward you, you shall always be regarded 
by me as such.' The last time he came to see us, he had 
with him the unfortunate — as he afterward became — 
Major Andre, who, the day afterward, set out upon the 
fatal expedition in which he was captured by the Ameri- 
cans and afterward hung as a spy. It was very sad that 
this pre-eminently excellent young man should have 
fallen a victim to his zeal and his kind heart, which led 
him to undertake such a precarious errand instead of 
leaving it to older and known officers, to whom properly 
the duty belonged, but whom, on that very account (as 
they would be more exposed to danger), he wished to save. 

" We passed much of our time at this most agreeable 
place, but our contentment was broken in upon by a 
malignant fever that prevailed in New York, and of 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 267 

which in our family alone, twenty fell ill, eight danger- 
ously. Among these eight were my husband, and my 
daughter Gustava. One can imagine my grief and appre- 
hension ; day and night I did nothing but divide my nurs- 
ing between my husband and daughter. The former was 
so ill that we often thought he would not survive the day; 
and Gustava had such violent paroxysms of fever that she 
entreated me, when she was shivering with the ague, to 
lay myself upon her, at which times she violently shook 
me, together with her bed, although she was only nine 
years old. It frequently happened that those sick of the 
fever died in these fits of shaking, and every day persons 
would tell me of fifty or sixty fresh burials, which cer- 
tainly did not tend to raise my spirits. The heat which 
the sick suffered was so intense that their pulse beat one 
hundred and thirty-five times in a minute. All our serv- 
ants were sick, and of course I was obliged to do every- 
thing. I was then nursing my little America, and had 
neither opportunity nor desire to lie down, except w T hile 
giving her the breast. At such times I lay down upon 
the bed and fell asleep. At night I was often busied in 
making for my patients a lemonade of salts of wormwood, 
mixed with lemon-juice, sugar, and water ; by which means, 
as all the sick in the house had them, I used up, in the 
space of two weeks, two full boxes of lemons, each box 
containing five hundred. 

" We remained the entire summer of 1780 upon this 
lovely estate. Two Miss Robinsons came to share oui 
loneliness and enliven our little company. They remained 
with us a fortnight previous to our return to the 

17 SO. 

city, when the news of the arrival of a ship from 
England, bringing over the latest fashions, took them back 
again to the town. On our return to the city I scarcely 
recognized them in their odd and actually laughable garb, 
which a very pretty woman, just over from England, had 



268 HISTORY OF N !•: w KORK CITJf. 

imposed upon them and the other New York ladies. This 
lady was with child, and did oot wish i( to hi' known. 
Accordingly, she made them think that in England they 
wore bodices that were parted in the middle, whereby the 

points stuck upward, hoops as large around as those of a 

hogshead, and very shorl cloaks tied up with ribbons, all 
of which thev believed implicitly, and copied after.* 

■■ Upon our return to New York we were received in 

the most friendly manner, and our friends vied with each 
Other in making the winter pass most pleasantly. Mv 

husband, General Phillips, and their aids-de-camp, were 
liualU exchanged in the autumn oi' L780, hut the rest of 
the troops captured at Saratoga remained prisoners. 

"General Clinton, partly through friendship to my 

husband, and [tartly out of attachment to our present 

duke, wished to place General Riedesel in active service, 
where lie could serve to advantage, lie, therefore, by 
virtue of the power which an English general has in his 
own army, appointed him Lieutenant-General, and gave 
him the corresponding English allowance; which, ow 
account of the dearness of every thing (by reason of which 
we had difficulty in making both ends meet), proved very 
acceptable to us. At the same time he gave him a com- 
mand at Long Island, which island lies opposite New York, 
being separated from it by only a narrow channel called 

■ I'll.- taste for fashionable frivolitj and display seems t" have been the 
only thing unaffected by the privations of thai gloomy winter. Eugene Law 
rence, in Bpeaking of New fork citj a1 this time, in a paper read before the 
\cw JTork Historical Society, January 6th, 1867, says: "Meanwhile, in the 
midst of all this Buffering and want, the city sir.vis were Riled with the fash- 
ions ami tin- luxuries of Europe, The ladies crowded William Street, and the 
merchants Bpread out the most costly wares, French Bilks, captured, in some 
unlucky vessels, sold readilj al extravagant rates, Lutestrings anil poplins. 
brocades, and the besl broadcloth of England, were shown on tin- counters of 
William Streei ami Wall ; and it is a curious circumstance, that, through all 
the war. William Prince, of Flushing, continued his advertisement of fruit 
and flowers, of magnolias and apricots, and of the finest grafts and the rarest 
Beeds," 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 26.) 

the East River. I was riot able during the winter to be 
with him, as the house in which he had his quarters was 
not habitable for me, as it was possible to heat only a tew 
rooms in it. My husband, accordingly, went back and 
forth, which he easily did all winter, as everything was 
quiet. The autumn before he was appointed to this post, 
he had a severe relapse of his old complaint, caused prob- 
ably by a cold which he caught by going in sea-bathing 
while heated. He suddenly became perfectly stiff, and 
could not speak; and had it not been for friend Colonel 
Wurmb, who fortunately was in his room, it might, per- 
haps, have been all over with him. The doctor immedi- 
ately opened a vein and rubbed him strongly, and God 
once more spared him to me ; but his cramps, oppressions, 
headaches, and drowsiness increased. All the physicians 
gave it as their opinion that the climate thoroughly disa- 
greed with him, and that he never would be any better as 
long as he remained in the Southern provinces of North 
America. Still, there was nothing else for us to do. My 
husband could not think of receiving permission to leave, 
and was, therefore, obliged to remain at his post. 

" In the spring of 1781, I also settled down on Long 
Island, where we, although pretty lonesome, might have 
lived perfectly contented if we only could have 
been without solicitude ; but, as the river was not 
frozen over, the Americans constantly attempted surprises 
in order to take prisoners. Major Maybauin was drawn 
out of his bed, and we knew that they aimed to do the 
same thing with my husband. Our house was situated 
close to the shore, and was perfectly isolated, so that if they 
had overcome the watch, they could easily have carried 
him away. Every one was therefore constantly on the 
watch. Throughout the entire night, at the slightest noise. 
he would wake up and place himself in readiness for an 
attack, and thus he lost considerable sleep. I also became 



270 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

» 

so accustomed to watching, that daylight would often sur- 
prise me, when I would lie down and catch a few hours' 
sleep ; for it was only when my husband believed that I 
was wide-awake and on guard, that he would allow him- 
self to sleep, so terrible was to him the thought that he 
might again be taken prisoner. We had from our house 
a magnificent prospect. Every evening I saw from my 
window the City of New York, entirely lighted up ; and, 
as the city is built close to the shore, I saw its reflection 
in the water. We heard, also, the beating of the drums ; 
and, if everything was particularly still, even the calls of 
the sentinels. We had our own boat, and could cross over 
in it to New York in a quarter of an hour." 

During the Revolution, the house No. 1 Broadway — to 
which allusion has been made on a preceding page — was 
the head-quarters and general rendezvous of the British 
generals and other army officers.* In like manner, 

* Connected with the house No. 1 Broadway, built in 1742, and now the oldest 
house in New York city, there is quite an amusing reminiscence. Previous 
to this year (1742,) the site was occupied by an old tavern kept by a Mrs. Kocks, 
built fifty years before by her husband, Pieter Kocks, an officer in the Dutch 
service, and an active leader in the Indian war of 1693. Connected with this 
personage there is an interesting as well as amusing episode. According to 
Judge Daly, in The Historical Magazine for January, 1871, it appears that in 
1654: this same Pieter Kocks, then a single man, residing in New Amsterdam, 
brought an action, in the Court of Burgomeisters and Schepens, against Anna 
Van Vorst, who is described as a maid living at Ahasimus, for a breach of 
promise of marriage mutually entered into between them, in confirmation of 
which he had made her certain gifts. It would seem, however, as the record 
states, that the lady had misgivings, and was not disposed to marry him. On 
her part, she proved, by two witnesses, that he had agreed to give her up, and 
had promised to give her an acquittal in writing. But the court would not 
excuse her ; " as the promise of mariage," says the court, " was made before 
the Omnipotent liod, it shall remain in force ; " and they held that neither 
should marry any other person without the approval of the court ; that the 
presents should remain with the lady until they were married, or until, by 
mutual consent, they were exempted from the contract ; and they were equally 
condemned in the costs of the suit. This Anna Van Vorst is supposed to have 
been a daughter of the first emigrant by Vrouwtje Ides, and was the ancestor 
of our fellow-citizen Hon. Hooper C. Van Vorst. 

tdnce speaking of this house on page 152, a writer in the New York Even 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 



271 



the Beekman House (the site of the present Journal of Com- 
merce Building) was at the same time the head-quarters of 
the British naval officers. This continued to be so during 
the entire war, and, indeed, had been so before the Revolu- 
tion. Admirals Charles Hardy (Admiral of the Blue) and 
John Digby (Admiral of the Red) were often here. The 




THE TOMBS. 



late King of England, William IV, who, as the Duke of 
Clarence and a midshipman, came over here with Admiral 
Digby, in the St. George, in 1782, made this house his 
place of resort on shore. His German tastes were shown 
by his taking every occasion, when off duty, to skate 
on the Kolck or Collect Pond (now the site of the 

ing Post has given currency again to the story that it was built by Captain 
Kennedy. Let this question be forever set at rest. The Watts family acquired 
the ownership to the property of No. 1 Broadway through Sir Peter, Admi- 
ral Warren, who, as stated on page 152, built the house. Captain Archi- 
bald Kennedy, who, late in life, succeeded to the Scotch Earldom of Cassilis, 
married a daughter of John Watts— a niece of Sir John Johnson's wife, nee 
Miss Mary Watts— and by this marriage acquired the property in question. 
Ihis is all the connection that Kennedy ever had with the house in dispute 



272 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Tombs). His companion on these occasions was Gnlian 
Verplanck * — the grand-uncle of the late Gulian C. 
Verplanck — who once rescued him from drowning when 
he had broken through the ice and fallen into the 
Pond. The changes which have taken place from time 
to time in the lines of roads and streets, have greatly 
altered the aspect of the entire neighborhood. The calm 
and quiet life of the ancient Hollanders in this locality has 
given place to scenes of which they had little dreamed. 
Within a stone's-throw of the Journal of Commerce Build- 
ing, Wall Street, with its fibers stretching out into every 
part of the civilized globe, controls the destinies of millions 
of human beings. Where the good Mrs. Beekman and her 
five daughters attended to their household duties in the 
old Dutch kitchen, a steam-engine now drives a printing- 
press. Where they sat waiting for news from "home" by 
ships that were months in coming, editors now sit, and 
receive in the afternoon the morning's news in England 
and Holland, t 

At length a definite treaty of peace was entered into 
by the United States and Great Britain on the 3d of Sep- 
tember, 1783 ; and on the 25th of November of the same 
year — just seven years, two months, and ten days 
from the time the British had occupied New York 
in triumph — Washington entered the city at noon — at the 

* Afterward President of the Bank of New York, in which office he contin- 
ued until his death, in 1799. 

f William Beekman had a country-seat three miles from the City Hall, and 
a house on his plantation in the lower part of the city. His down-town house 
was located on the spot which is now the site of the Journal of Commerce 
building. The old road to the fort, from the ferry on the East River, then at 
Peck Slip, ran along the shore nearly to the foot of Wall Street, when it 
turned and passed the Beekman House, which was probably erected with 
reference to this highway. In 1712, a negro riot broke out near Hanover 
Square, and Adrian Beekman (a son of Gerard, who had been owner of this 
and other property), rushing out of his residence to help quell the insurrec- 
tion, was stabbed by a negro. As a result of this riot, nineteen slaves were 
executed. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



273 



same time that the British troops, having, as they sup- 
posed, prevented the immediate hoisting of American 
colors, by knocking off the cleats and greasing the flag- 
staff on Fort George, evacuated the city and sailed slowly 
down the bay. But this device availed them little. 
New cleats were at once nailed to the pole ; and before 
the British disappeared in the offing they heard the thun- 
ders of American cannon, proclaiming, as the Stars and 
Stripes were run up, the downfall of British supremacy 
in America ! 




THE BOWLING GREEN AND FORT GEORGE IN 1783. 



35 



CHAPTER VIII. 

A history of this period would be incomplete without 
an allusion to the newspapers published in the City of 
New York before and during the American Revolution. 

The first newspaper published in New York city was 
the New York Gazette, established by William Bradford in 
October, 1725, just twenty-one years subsequent to the 
establishment at Boston of the first newspaper pub- 
lished in America — the Newsletter. It was printed 
on a half sheet of foolscap, with large and almost worn- 
out type. There is a large volume of these papers in the 
New York Society Library, in good preservation. The 
advertisements do not average more than three or four a 
week, and are mostly of runaway negroes. The ship-news 
was diminutive enough — now and then a ship and some 
half-dozen sloops arriving and leaving in the course of the 
week. Such was the daily paper published in this, the 
commercial metropolis of America, one hundred and forty- 
six years ago ! 

Eight years after the establishment of Bradford's 
Gazette, the New' York Weekly Journal was commenced by 
John Peter Zenger, and was distinguished for the raciness 
of its advertisements.* 

* One of these advertisements was as follows : 

" Whereas, the wife of Peter Smith has left his bed and board, the public 
are cautioned against trusting her, as he will pay no debts of her contracting. 

" N. B. — The best of garden seeds sold by the same Peter Smith, at the sign 
of the Golden Hammer." 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 275 

The third paper published in New York was called 
the Evening Post. It was commenced by Henry ^^ 
De Forest in 1746. It was remarkable chiefly for 
stupidity, looseness of syntax, and worse orthography, 
and died before it was able to walk alone. 

In 1752, the New York Mercury was commenced, and, in 
1763, the title was changed to the New York Gazette 
and Weekly Mercury. This paper was established by Hugh 
Gaine at the sign of the Bible and Crown, Hanover ^ b2 
Square. It was conducted with taste and ability, ^ 
and became the best newspaper in the colonies. 
In 1763, Gaine was arraigned by the Assembly for pub- 
lishing a part of the proceedings without permission, and 
withal incorrectly. He was a gentleman of a kind spirit, 
and never had the power to withhold an apology when it 
was asked ; he accordingly apologized, was reprimanded, 
and discharged. 

As the storm of war drew on in 1775, the Mercury 
contained a series of patriotic papers, under the signature 
of the " Watch-Tower." But as the British drew near to 
New York, the patriotism of Gaine began to cool ; and, 
during the whole course of the Revolutionary War, his 
Mercury afforded very accurate indications of the state 
of the contest. When with the Whigs, Hugh Gaine was 
a Whig; when with the Royalists, he was loyal. When 
the contest was doubtful, equally doubtful was the 
politics of Hugh Gaine. In short, he was the most per- 
fect pattern of the genuine non-committal. On the arrival 
of the British army, he removed to Newark, but soon 
returned to the city, and published a paper devoted to the 
cause of the Crown. His course was a fruitful theme for 
the wags of the day ; and, at the peace, a poetical petition 
from Gaine to the Senate of the State, setting forth his 
life and conduct, was got up with a good deal of humor, 
His paper closed with the war. 



276 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Another paper, called the New York Gazette, was com- 
menced by Way man, the former associate of Parker. In 
1TG6, Wayman was arrested and imprisoned for a 
contempt of the Assembly, upon no other charge 
than that of two typographical errors in printing the 
speech of Sir Henry Moore, the Governor of the colony. 
One of these errors consisted in printing the word never 
for ever, by reason of which the meaning of the sentence 
was reversed. The Assembly, however, was more rigid 
in this case, from the suspicion entertained that this error 
was intentional ; but such was clearly not the case. 

A paper called the New York Chronicle w r as published 
during the years 1761— '62, and then died. The New York 
Pacquct was next published in 1763, but how long it lived 
is not known. In 1766, Holt established the New York 
Journal, or General Advertiser, which, in the course of the 
year, was united with Parker's Gazette, the Journal being 
printed as a separate paper. John Holt edited the first 
Whig paper published in this city ; nor, as in the case of 
Hugh Gaine, did his patriotism come and go as danger 
approached or receded from the city. • In 1774, Holt 
discarded the King's arms from the title of his 

1774. ° . 

paper, and substituted a serpent, cut into pieces? 

with the expressive motto, " Unite or die." In 
January, 1775, the snake was united, and coiled with 
the tail in its mouth, forming a double ring. On the 
body of the snake, beginning at the head, were the fol- 
lowing lines : 

" United now, alive and free — 
Firm on this basis Liberty shall stand, 
And, thus supported, ever bless our land, 
Till time becomes Eternity." 

The designs both of 1774 and 1775 were excellent — 
the first by a visible illustration, showing the disjointed 
state of the colonies ; and the second presenting an 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 277 

emblem of their strength when united. Holt maintained 
his integrity to the last. When the British took possession 
of New York, he removed to Esopus (now Kingston), and 
revived his paper. On the burning of that village by the 
enemy in 1777, he removed to Poughkeepsie, and pub- 
lished the Journal there until the peace of 1783, when he 
returned to New York, and resumed his paper under the 
title of the Independent Gazette, or the Neiv York Journal 
revived. Holt was an unflinching patriot, but did not long 
survive the achievement of his country's freedom. He 
fell a victim to the yellow fever in 1798. The paper was 
continued by his widow for a little while, but ultimately 
fell into the hands of that celebrated political gladiator, 
James Cheetham. 

The celebrated James Rivington began his paper in 
1733, under the formidable title of Rivington 1 s Neiv York 
Gazette; or, the Connecticut, Neiv Jersey, Hudson River, and 
Quebec Weekly Advertiser. The imprint read as follows : 
" Printed at his ever open and uninfluenced press, fronting 
Hanover Square." It is well known that Rivington was 
the royal printer during the whole of the Revolutionary 
War ; and it is amusing to trace the degrees by which his 
toryism manifested itself as the storm gathered over the 
country. The title of the paper originally contained the 
cut of a large ship under full sail. In 1774, the ship sailed 
out of sight, and the King's arms appeared in its place; 
and, in 1775, the words ever open and uninfluenced were 
withdrawn from the imprint, These symptoms were dis- 
liked by the patriots of the country; and, in November, 
1775, a party of armed men from Connecticut entered the 
city on horseback, beset his habitation, broke into his 
printing-office, destroyed his presses, and threw his types 
\\\to pi. They then carried them away, melted, and cast 
them into bullets. Rivington's paper was now effectually 
stopped, until the British nrmy took possession of the city. 



278 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Rivington himself, meantime, had been to England, where 
he procured a new printing apparatus, and, returning, 
established the New York Royal Gazette, published by 
James Rivington, printer to the King's most excellent 
Majesty. During the remaining five years of the war, 
Rivington's paper was more distinguished for its lies and 
its disloyalty than any other journal in the colonies. It was 
published twice a week ; and four other newspapers were 
published in this city at the same time, under the sanc- 
tion of the British officers, — one arranged for each day, 
so that, in fact, they had the advantages of a daily paper. 
It has been said and believed that Rivington, after all, 
was a secret traitor to the Crown, and, in fact, the secret 
spy for General Washington. Be this, however, as it 
may, as the war drew to a close, and the prospects of the 
King's arms began to darken, Rivington's loyalty began 
to cool down ; and bv 1787 the King's arms had 

17ST. 

disappeared ; the ship again sailed into sight ; and 
the title of the paper, no more the Royal Gazette, was 
simply Rivington's New Fork Gazette and Universal Ad- 
vertiser. But, although he labored to play the repub- 
lican, he was distrusted by the people, and his paper was 
relinquished in the course of that year. 

From this brief sketch of the history of newspapers, 
from their first introduction into the city down to the 
period of the Revolution, an idea may be formed of the 
germ of the newspaper-press, which is now one of the 
chief glories of our country. The public press of no other 
country equals that of New York city and the United 
States, either on the score of its moral or its intellectual 
power, or for the exertion of that manly independence of 
thought and action, which ought ever to characterize the 
press of a free people.* 

* The whole number of periodicals issued in the United States is 5,983, with 
73 to be added for the Territories, 353 for the Dominion of Canada, and 29 for 



HISTORY OF NEW YOBK CITY. 



279 



What a prophet would the great wizard-novelist of 
Scotland have been, had the prediction which he put into 
the mouth of Galeotti Martivalle, the astrologer of Louis 
the Eleventh, in the romance of Quentin Durward, been 
written at the period of its date ! Louis, who has justly 
been held as the Tiberius of France, is represented as 
paying a visit to the mystic workshop of the astrologer, 
whom his majesty discovered to be engaged m the then 
newly-invented art of multiplying manuscripts by the 
intervention of machinery -in other words, the apparatus 
of printing. 

everv other State having from three to twelve times as many weekb* a^da he. 
Tri-weekly papers are more common in the South than semi-weeklies, while 
the Northern States the facts are reversed. 

New York has 89 dailies, being the largest number ^ any Stat, 
Pennsylvania is second, with 61. Next comes Illinois, with 08 and California 
hasSblg the fourth on the list. Delaware and Florida have each one 
da ly paper Kansas has as many as Vermont, West Virginia, Mississippi and 

ArtLLombined. ^^^^^^^^^^"^^ 
Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, West \irginia, Arkansas, 

Delaware Florida, Maine, or Mississippi. 

the 73 publications issued regularly in the Territories, Id are darty 

50 weekly, 3 tri-weekly, 4 semi-weekly, 1 monthly, 1 semi-monthly, and 1 

^Tne^apers of New York State have the largest circulation, averaging 7,411 
ine papeis ui ± c average ; then comes the 

each taue Ma s^ha** ,» secoad - * « »£ -^ „„,. 

District of Columbia, with i,6M. as Jew xu i F evident 

while those of California do not go very much out of the State it is evici 
£? tt papers have a better local support than in other States ot the 

Am L ri Te U DMrict of Columbia there is one newspaper published for every 
three square miles of territory. Massachusetts has one to 30 square .miles and 
Holland one to 50. -en^sNew ^-Jj^ onTtot^ 

W 'S:S the publications published in New York city the curious 
reader is referred to the American Newspaper Directory, of this citj . 



280 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

" Can things of such mechanical and terrestrial im- 
port," inquired the King, " interest the thoughts of one 
before whom Heaven has unrolled her own celestial 
volumes ? " 

" My brother," replied the astrologer, " believe me, 
that, in considering the consequences of this invention, I 
read with as certain augury, as by any combination of the 
heavenly bodies, the most awful and portentous changes. 
When I reflect with what slow and limited supplies the 
stream of science hath hitherto descended to us ; how dif- 
ficult to be obtained by those most ardent in its search; 
how certain to be neglected by all who love their ease ; 
how liable to be diverted or altogether dried up by the 
invasions of barbarism, — can I look forward without won- 
der and astonishment to the lot of a succeeding genera- 
tion, on whom knowledge will descend like the first and 
second rain, — uninterrupted, unabated, unbounded ; fertilizing 
some grounds and overflowing others ; changing the whole 
form of social life ; establishing and overthrowing relig- 
ions ; erecting and destroying kingdoms — " 

" Hold ! hold, Galeotti ! " cried the King ; " shall these 
changes come in our time 1 " 

"No, my royal brother," replied Martivalle ; "this 
invention may be likened to a young tree which is now 
newly planted, but shall, in succeeding generations, bear 
fruit as fatal, yet as precious, as that of the Garden of 
Eden, — the knowledge, namely, of good and of evil." 



THIED PEEIOD. 
1783—1871. 

From the Evacuation of New York City by the British to the present day. 

CHAPTER I. 

" The city is ruined by the war, but its future great- 
ness is unquestionable." So wrote a citizen of New York, at 
the close of the Revolutionary War, to a friend ; and never 
was there a truer prophecy uttered. The trade 
of the city was indeed " ruined ; " her treasury was 
empty ; and her people were yet divided by domestic 
feuds. Still, this state of things could not last long. The 
position of New York among the colonies had already 
become too important to be ignored for any length of 
time ; and the same causes which, at an early period, 
made New York the center of the colonial interest, were 
to continue in operation until she should become that 
which she now is, — the metropolis of America. The Colo- 
nial Congress of 1765, the Provincial Congress of 1776, 
the selection of herself as the seat of the General Govern- 
ment in 1788, and the inauguration of Washington in 
1789, were " all hints of the empire that was to be." 

36 



282 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

On the 13th of September, 17£8, the adoption of the 

Federal Constitution was publicly announced ; and New 

York was chosen as the seat of the General Gov- 

1 7 88« 

eminent. This action of the Convention was 
peculiarly gratifying to the citizens of New York, who at 
once took steps to celebrate the occasion with fitting 
ceremonies.* 

It is well known that the festivities attendant upon 
such a momentous occasion should be embalmed for 
American generations yet unborn. The adoption of the 
Federal Constitution — the instrument which was to bind 
the almost disjointed members of the republic together, 
as one people — was the most important event that the 
citizens of New York had ever been called upon to com- 
memorate. The period intervening between the formation 
of the Constitution by the Convention, and its adoption 
by the number of States requisite to give it validity, was 
one of deep anxiety to the patriots of that day, not un- 
mingled with fears as to the final result. A violent 
opposition sprung up in various parts of the Confederation, 
which was so successfully fomented by demagogues, and 
by those who feared they might lose weight in the national 
scale, should the new Federal edifice be erected, that the 
friends of the Constitution, seeing nothing better than civil 
tumult and anarchy in the prospective, should that instru- 
ment be rejected, entertained the most lively apprehen- 

* The account given in the text of the Procession in honor of the adoption 
of the Federal Constitution, as well as the narrative of the Inauguration 
Ball, is taken from the writings of the late Colonel William L. Stone, for thirty 
years the editor of the New York Commercial Advertiser. It is believed to 
comprise the only faithful historical record, political, festive, and fashionable, 
of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, the organization of the Govern- 
ment, the pageantry attending it, and the demonstrations which followed that 
important epoch in our national history. The particulars were collected by 
Colonel Stone, with much care and labor, from such printed accounts as could 
be found in the scattered remnants of the little dingy newspapers of that day, 
and, also, such facts as were yet dimly floating in the recollections of those few 
who were then surviving and had been actors in the scenes described. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY; 283 

sions upon the subject. There were, likewise, among the 
opponents of the proposed Constitution, some good men 
and real patriots, who honestly believed, that, in the event 
of its adoption, too much power would pass from the 
States to the Federal Congress and the Executive. The 
ablest tongues and pens in the Union were brought into 
action ; and it was that contest which combined the united 
wisdom of Hamilton, Jay, and Madison, in the Federalist,— 
the ablest exposition of the Constitution that ever has 
been, or, perhaps, ever will be, written. 

The action, however, of the respective States was slow. 
The proceedings of their conventions were watched with 
absorbing interest ; and, when it was found that the voice 
of New York would turn the scale (the Convention being 
in session in Poughkeepsie), all eyes were eagerly turned 
toward that quarter. The chief reason of New York's 
reluctance to come into the Constitutional Union was the 
fear — in view of the rising destiny of their city and State — 
of making over too much of their local power to the 
central Government ; especially their great share of rev- 
enue from imports, and their commanding'position between 
New England and the South and West. The contest, 
however, was not long in doubt. Hamilton redoubled his 
wonderful efforts, and Livingston put the whole energies 
of his capacious mind in requisition, and the Federalists 
triumphed. The news was received in New York city 
with unbounded delight ; the clubs celebrated the event 
with dinners and great festivity, and the citizens gave, 
themselves up to the most unequivocal evidences of grati- 
fication. But private manifestations of the public feelino- 
were held not to be worthy of the occasion, and no time 
was lost in concerting the necessary measures for a public 
commemoration of the event, upon the most extensive and 
splendid scale that the public means would allow. Nor 
has the pageantry of any American celebration since that 



284 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

day — not even excepting the Atlantic Cable Celebration 
of 1859 — excelled it in the ardor of its enthusiasm, or in 
the splendor of its effect. In describing the procession on 
this occasion, Colonel Stone says : — 

"The procession was organized ' in the fields,' above 
the city ; thence it moved down Broadway to Great Dock 
Street; thence through Hanover Square and Queen (now 
Pearl) Street, up to Chatham ; through Chatham to 
Division, and thence across, through Bullock Street, to 
the grounds surrounding the country-seat of Nicholas 
Bayard, near the present junction of Broadway and 
Grand Street. 

" A volume would scarce suffice to detail the par- 
ticulars necessary to a full description of the flags and 
emblems, and patriotic decorations, which graced the many 
divisions and subdivisions of this brilliant pageant — alto- 
gether exceeding anything of a kindred character pre- 
viously exhibited in the New World. After a brilliant 
military escort came Captain Moore, in the character and 
ancient costume of Christopher Columbus, preceded and 
followed by a band of foresters, with axes, suitably ap- 
pareled. The next division consisted of a large number 
of farmers, among whom were Nicholas Cruger, driving a 
six-ox team, and the present venerable John Watts, hold- 
ing a plow. All the implements of husbandry and 
gardening were borne in the procession, and the Baron 
Poelnitz attended a threshing-machine. Their horses 
were handsomely caparisoned, and led by boys in white 
uniforms The tailors made a very brilliant display of 
numbers, uniforms, and decorations of various descriptions. 
In the procession of the bakers were boys in beautiful 
dresses, representing the several States, with roses in their 
hands. There were likewise an equal number of journey- 
men in appropriate uniforms, with the implements of the 
calling, and a loaf of bread was borne in the procession 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 285 

ten feet long and three wide, on which were inscribed the 
names of the several States. The display of the brewers 
was happily conceived, and appropriate. In addition to 
their banners fluttering gayly in the air, they paraded cars 
with hogsheads and tuns, decorated with festoons of hop- 
vines, intertwined with handfuls of barley. Seated on 
the top of a tun was a living Bacchus — a beautiful boy of 
eight years old — dressed in flesh-colored silk, fitted snugly 
to the limbs, and thus disclosing all the fine symmetrical 
proportions of his body. In his hand he held a silver 
goblet, with which he quaffed the nut-brown, and on his 
head was a garland of hops and barley-ears. The coopers 
appeared in great numbers. Their emblem of the States 
were thirteen boys, each thirteen years of age, dressed in 
white, with green ribbons at their ankles, a keg under 
their left arms, and a bough of white oak in their right 
hands. Upon an immensely large car, drawn by horses 
appropriately adorned, the coopers were at work. They 
had a broken cask, representing the old confederacy, the 
staves of which all their skill could not keep together. In 
despair at the repeated nullification which their work ex- 
perienced, they all at once betook themselves to the con- 
struction of an entirely new piece of work. Their success 
was complete, and a fine, tight, iron-bound keg arose from 
their hand, bearing the name of the New Constitution. 
The procession of butchers was long, and their appearance 
highly respectable. Upon the car in their procession was 
a roasted ox, of a thousand pounds, which was given as a 
sweet morsel to the hungry multitude at the close of the 
day. The car of the sons of St. Crispin was drawn by 
four milk-white steeds, beautifully caparisoned. The 
tanners, curriers, and peruke-makers followed next in 
order, each with various banners and significant emblems. 
The furriers, from the novelty of their display, attracted 
great attention. It was truly picturesque. Their marshal 



was ibflowed by an Indian in Ids r 

-^rzi:z i- lL:-_zL ••■•-- -; -a-ili ir:n zL~ — _.:.t~ — ? - 1-:. 
— ::"_ ; ... - : . :_r _ :.;_: t" i - i : - . _;~ r y- 

_:: :-T^ : .- ~~rl -r _ t :.__ - ...v .. - — . : ... 
; -..-.. .". .'.- Z--.~- - -.:- -.. rrl-I :v i _::>f 

.-: : -.t ri ; ;..- ;:! ;, _.^ - ; •::.„. . : 

7_-r _ ■ .. - 

blanket, and Mack phones waving upon his head. In the 
;t_: l_- .t : :_ri: :;._:. . :..-:.. I.-.-., ir. . ;.:-:: 
-.:.-: i~V-t ~ -^: .l_ i -.-.-_ i: . : mi :.:_-:- 1.1 
smoking a tomahawk pipe. Afier these, in order, inarched 

_ . _ _--.t:-;- 7ir i-r: . : ..;.- : ::.- - " - -! .:.. 



"..-..:' .r. . :•--.:. m: _ .: _: ""-- -n m:. _ _ . - : 
have filled die eve of a Persian emperor, in the height of 

.•:v ..~ . • mi : m _ m m zi.m:- - •." -.- •-'•-..' .-- —- 
of various trades succeeded in the prescribed order, after 
winch came the most imposing part of the pageant 
was the Federal ship ffimriflft i — i perfeetlj-c o n sliu cted 
. . - ; -;. :;.--: _...- - - ..' '---. - -.:. : -.-*. .•; -.-.-'. mi :m 
:■.-.-: - v. ".-... _...-:..-.-- m: - -: ' ._ ... _ .t:- ml ... 
proportion, both hnU and rigging. She was mamifd bv 
thirty seamen and marines, with officers, ill in uniform, 
and commanded by that distinguished Revolutionary 

. " . ..- ;. 7. : - . - . . 

ten horses ; and. in the progress of the procession, went 
:_:.._.. every nantifal preparation and movement lor 
storms, calms, and squalls, and fur the sudden shifting of 
winds. In pacing Libert;. rhe made a signal lor a 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 28*3 

pilot, and a boat came off and put one on board. On 
arriving before Constable's house, Mrs. Edgar came to the 
window, and presented the ship with a suit of rich silk 
colors ; the yards were instantly manned, and the sailors 
gave three hearty cheers. When passing Old Slip, a 
Spanish government-ship gave her a salute of thirteen 
guns, which was returned by the Hamilton with as much 
promptness as though she had actually been a ship of 
war upon the wide ocean. Next after the ship came the 
pilots and the Marine Society. To these succeeded the 
printers, book-binders, and stationers, led by those veterans 
of the type and quill. Hugh Gaine and Samuel Landon. 
They had a car, upon which the printers were at work : 
the press was plied briskly, and impressions of a patriotic 
cde distributed, as they were taken, among the multitude. 
Their banners were worthy of their proud vocation. To 
these succeeded twenty-one subdivisions, of as many 
different trades, each moving under its own banners; after 
which followed the learned professions and the literary 
societies. The lawyers were preceded by John Lawrence. 
Esq., supported by John Cozine and Robert Troup. The 
Philological Society, headed by Josiah Ogden Hoffman. 
Esq., the president, was the next. One of the founders of 
this society was Noah Webster. LL. D., the great American 
lexicographer, who was in the procession. The standard 
was borne by William Dunlap, Esq. The officers and 
members of the university came next, and their successors 
were the Chamber of Commerce and merchants, headed 
by John Broome, president. William Maxwell, vice- 
president of the Bank, followed in a chariot, and William 
Laight, the secretary, was mounted upon a noble steed. 
Phvsicians. strangers, and gentlemen who were members 
of Congress, then in session in New York, closed the civic 
procession ; and the whole was brought up by a detach- 
ment of artillery. 



288 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

" The procession contained nearly five thousand people ; 
and the spectacle was more solemn and imposing, and 
more truly splendid, than had ever before been presented 
to the eye of man on the American continent. It was, 
indeed, a pageant of indescribable interest, and, to most, 
of double attraction ; the occasion being one in which the 
deepest sympathies were enlisted, and it being also the 
first display of pomp and circumstance which they had 
ever witnessed. The whole population of the city had 
given themselves up to the enjoyment of the occasion ; and 
gladness, in all its fullness, was depicted in every counte- 
nance, while a noble enthusiasm swelled every bosom. 
The bond of union was complete, and every man felt as 
though his country had been rescued, in the last hour, 
from the most imminent peril. 

•'When the procession reached the country-jseat of 
Nicholas Bayard, a noble banquet was found already 
spread for the whole assemblage, beneath a grand pavil- 
ion temple covering a surface of eight by six hundred 
feet, with plates for six thousand people. This splendid 
rural structure had been erected in the short space of four 
days, and the citizens were indebted for it to the taste and 
enterprise of Major L'Enfant, by whom it was designed, 
and under whose direction the work was executed. The 
two principal sides of the building consisted of three large 
pavilions, connected by a colonnade of about one hundred 
and fifty feet front, and forming two sides of an obtuse 
angle ; the middle pavilion, rising majestically above the 
whole, terminated with a dome, on the top of which was 
Fame, with her trumpet, proclaiming a new era. and hold- 
ing; in her left hand the standard of the United States, and 
a roll of parchment on which were inscribed, in large char- 
acters, the three remarkable epochs of the War of the 
Revolution. — the Declaration of Independence, the Alli- 
ance with France, and the Peace of 1783. At her side 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 989 

was the American eagle, with extended wings, resting on 
a crown of laurel gracing the top of the pedestal. Over 
six of the principal pillars of this colonnade, escutcheons 
were placed, inscribed with the ciphers of the several 
powers in alliance with the United States, viz. : France, 
Spain, Sweden, Prussia, Holland, Morocco; and over these 
were displayed the colors of those respective nations, which 
added greatly to the brilliancy of the entablature, already 
decorated w r ith festoons and branches of laurels. The 
extremities of this angle were joined by a table forming 
part of a circle, and from this ten more colonnades were 
extended, each four hundred and forty feet in length, radi- 
ating like the rays of a circle ; the whole having one 
common center, which was also the center of the middle 
pavilion, where sat the President of Congress. At the 
extremity of each colonnade was a pavilion, nearly simi- 
lar to the three before mentioned, having their outsides 
terminated in a pediment crowned with escutcheons, on 
which were inscribed the names of the States now united. 
The whole of the colonnades were adorned with curtains 
elegantly folded, and with wreaths and festoons of laurels 
dispersed with beautiful and tasteful effect. The various 
bands of music which had enlivened the march of the pro- 
cession were concentrated in the area within the angle 
first described, during the banquet, but so disposed as not 
to intercept the prospect from the seat of the president, 
through the whole length of the ten colonnades. The 
repast concluded, the procession was reorganized, and 
marched again into the city, and was dismissed at the 
Bowling Green, where the Federal ship fired a closing 
salute." 

Thus passed the 23d of July, 1788, in the City of New 
York, — a day which deserves to be remembered by the 
patriot, the politician, and the philosopher, as that on 
which the people of the first city in the Western World 

37 



290 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

gave simultaneously the strongest and most enthusiastic 
demonstration of their attachment to the great princi- 
ples of " our Federal Union," as those principles were 
understood by the distinguished architects who formed 
the civil structure. On that occasion all narrow and big- 
oted distinctions were lost, and absorbed in that noblest 
of passions, — the love of country, and the determination 
to secure and preserve the blessings of civil and religious 
liberty. Esto perpetua! 



CHAPTER II. 

The winter festivities of 1788-'89, however, were suc- 
ceeded by matters of a public nature, which quickened the 
pulse of the politician, and excited a lively degree 
of attention, not only in the City of New York, 
but throughout the borders of the young republic. 
The elections under the new Constitution had been held ; 
Washington — the man of all others " first in the hearts 
of his countrymen" — had been spontaneously designated 
by the people as their first Chief Magistrate under the new 
system ; and the constituted authorities elect were about 
to assemble in New York, to give action to the new polit- 
ical machinery. Congress, consisting for the first time of 
two branches, — a Senate and House of Representatives, — 
was to meet on the 4th day of March, 1789 ; and the 
thoughts of all were directed with deep solicitude to the 
period at which their labors were to be commenced. 

The day, "big with the fate of Rome," at length 
arrived ; but it brought not a quorum of either House ; for 
although the men of those days cannot be safely charged 
with a deficiency of patriotism, yet they had no sinister 
or ambitious purposes to accomplish, and, therefore, did 
not assemble in organized bodies of partisans at the first 
tap of the political drum. Adjourning over from day to 
day, until nearly the " ides of March " had arrived, with- 
out any accession being made to their numbers, on the 
11th of that month the senators present jointly addressed 



292 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

a circular letter to the absentees, urging their prompt 
attention to assist in putting the Government into opera- 
tion. The request was repeated by letter on the 18th. 

The House of Representatives was similarly circum- 
stanced. Only thirteen members appeared on the day 
appointed, and these were from the five States of Massa- 
chusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South 
Carolina, — a commonwealth which, though always proud 
and high-spirited, was then as anxious to come into the 
Union as she seems since to have been to break out of it. 
The members gathered in by degrees, though slowly ; and 
the House, like the Senate, adjourned over daily, until the 
1st of April, when a quorum appeared, and Frederick 
Augustus Muhlenburgh, of Pennsylvania, was elected 
Speaker. Among the most distinguished patriots then 
present were Roger Sherman, Fisher Ames, Richard 
Bland Lee, James Madison, Elias Boudinot, and Thomas 
Tudor Tucker. 

The members of the Senate came in still more tardily; 
but, on the 6th of April, the arrival of Richard Henry 
Lee, of Virginia, enabled them to form a quorum and 
commence their labors. John Langdon was elected presi- 
dent of the Senate, pro tern., and Samuel A. Otis, secre- 
tary. Both Houses thus being organized, they proceeded 
to business, — their first act being to canvass the votes 
returned for President and Vice-President, as prescribed 
in the new Constitution. At the time the election by the 
people was held, but ten States had placed themselves 
within the pale of the new Constitution. The whole 
number of votes cast was sixty-nine ; and so entirely did 
the Father of his Country enjoy the affection of his chil- 
dren, that, without the aid of caucuses, or nominating con- 
ventions, every vote was given for George Washington. 
" If we look over the catalogue of the first magistrates of 
nations, whether they nave been denominated presidents 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 293 

or consuls, kings or princes, where shall we find one 
whose commanding talents and virtues, whose overruling 
good fortune, have so completely united all hearts and 
voices in his favor, — who enjoyed the esteem and admi- 
ration of foreign nations and his fellow-citizens with equal 
unanimity ? Qualities so uncommon are no common bless- 
ing to the country that possesses them. But it was by 
these great qualities, and their benign effects, that Provi- 
dence had marked out the first head of this great nation, 
with a hand so distinctly visible as to have been seen by 
all men and mistaken by none." * By the Constitution, 
while it bore the unadulterated impress of the wisdom of 
its framers, and before it had been impaired by amend- 
ment, the candidate receiving the second highest number 
of votes was to be declared the Vice-President. The lot 
fell upon one who, during the whole combat of the Revo- 
olution, had been in the halls of legislation what his illus- 
trious compeer had been in the field, — first in wisdom and 
foremost in action.t 

The gratifying result having been thus ascertained 
agreeably to the constitutional forms, Charles Thomson, 
the secretary of the old Congress, was dispatched to 
Mount Vernon, as a commissioner, to notify the chieftain 
of his election. Meantime a discussion arose in both 
Houses, resulting in an irreconcilable difference between 
them, of a character at once delicate and interesting. It 
called forth great talent, and first awakened those feelings 
of democratic jealousy and distrust of titles and power, 
of which we have seen so much since. Not that our mod- 
ern republicans are opposed, per se, to titles of a subordi- 
nate character, since for this species of distinction no 

* Inaugural Address of the first Vice-President — the elder Adams. 

f The vote stood as follows : George Washington, 69 ; John Adams, 34 ; 
John Jay, 9; Robert H. Harrison, 6; John Rutledge, 6 ; John Hancock, 4; 
George Clinton, 3 ; Samuel Huntington, 2 ; John Milton, 2 ; and one each for 
James Armstrong, Edward Telfair, and Benjamin Lincoln. 



294 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

people on earth appear so fond, or in fact enjoy so much, 
or adhere to it with greater tenacity. Many of the most 
respectable citizens were constant listeners to the debates 
of which we have just been speaking ; for they were not 
only interested in the principle involved, but loved to 
study the characters of those noble spirits who were now 
assembled to consummate the revolution which their wis- 
dom and valor had achieved, by reducing the discordant 
members of the republic to order, and adjusting the details 
of a government, under the firm but harmonious action of 
which, complicated as it was, it was hoped the principles 
of civil and religious freedom would for ages find shelter 
and protection. The question at issue was upon the 
adoption of some respectful title by which the President 
of the United States should be addressed in their official 
intercourse with him. The first proposition in the Senate 
was, that the official address should be " His Excellency." 
But this was not considered as sufficiently elevated. It 
was at length determined by that body, that the address 
should be — " His Highness the President of the United 
States, and the Protector of their Liberties." But the 
House of Representatives obstinately refused to sanction 
any title whatever, and declared that the constitutional 
address — " To the President" — was the only title which, 
as consistent republicans, they could sanction. Commit- 
tees of conference were appointed, but to no purpose. The 
indomitable spirit of the House of Representatives was 
not to be moved. The Senate finally resolved " that it 
would be proper to address the President by some respect- 
ful title ; but, for the sake of harmony, they would for the 
present act in conformity with the House of Representa- 
tives." And thus the matter has rested to this day. 

Summoned by the worthy messenger of Congress to 
repair to the seat of government and assume the high 
trust which had been conferred upon him by the people, 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 295 

the progress of the President-elect, from the shades of 
Vernon to New York, was like a triumphant procession 
along the whole distance. At Philadelphia he was met 
by Governor St. Clair, General Mifflin, and other distin- 
guished citizens, with the most rapturous enthusiasm. A 
grand banquet was prepared, of which he partook ; and 
addresses were presented to him from all classes of the 
people, expressive of their gratitude for his past services, 
their joy for his present elevation, and their confidence in 
his future administration. As he passed through the 
streets, the welkin rang with their joyous acclamations, 
and shouts of " Long live George Washington, the father 
of his people," resounded from thousands of voices. But, 
however flattering would have been these spontaneous 
marks of popular affection to ordinary mortals, the con- 
duct of the great chief on the occasion illustrated the 
republican virtue of dignified humility, and showed how 
excellent is glory when earned by virtue. Instead of 
assuming the pomp of royalty, or of any personal superior- 
ity, he sought throughout to prove himself, not only the 
friend of the people, but one of them. 

An escort attended him from the hospitable city of 
Penn, until he was received by the citizens of Trenton, 
into which place he was conducted by the civil and mili- 
tary authorities of New Jersey, with every patriotic, 
demonstration of respect and joy. This place had been 
rendered memorable by the capture of the Hessians, and 
by the repulse of the British troops near the bridge over 
the Delaware, the night before the Battle of Trenton. 
Recollecting these circumstances, the ladies of that city 
formed and executed the design of testifying their grati- 
tude to the chieftain for the protection of their daughters, 
by celebrating those actions in their pageant. For this 
purpose a triumphal arch was raised on the bridge, of 
twenty feet span, supported by thirteen pillars, each of 



296 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

which was entwined with wreaths of evergreens. The 
arch was covered with branches of laurel, and decorated 
on the inside with evergreens and flowers. Suitable in- 
scriptions were tastefully disposed, intertwined with flow- 
ers of various hues. On the center of the arch above 
stood a dome bearing the dates of the glorious actions 
referred to, inscribed in letters of gold, and enwreathed 
with flowers. The summit of the dome displayed a large 
sun-flower, which, directing to the sun, signified, in the 
language of Flora, " To you alone" — an emblem of the 
unanimity of the people in his favor. Assembled beneath 
the arch were many ladies, surrounded by their daughters, 
to welcome their former deliverer and defender. As the 
chieftain passed beneath the arch, a choir of girls, dressed 
in white, and crowned with wreaths and chaplets of 
flowers, sung a sonata composed for the occasion, com- 
mencing — 

" Welcome, mighty chief, once more." 

Each of the white-robed misses carried a basket of flowers, 
which, as the concluding line was sung — 

" Strew your hero's way with flowers," — 

were scattered in the path as he advanced. The pageant 
was simple and beautiful ; and the General returned 
thanks for the compliment in a card which was published 
at the time, and in which the white-robed maidens were 
particularly mentioned. 

Thence to Elizabethtown, the journey of the chieftain 
was a continued pageant, in which no means were left 
untried by the people to testify their attachment to the 
ruler of their choice. At this point, preparations had 
been made to receive their illustrious fellow-citizen by the 
authorities of New York. A splendid barge, constructed 
for the occasion, and elegantly decorated, had been dis- 
patched thither to receive the beloved soldier and states- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 297 

man in a manner corresponding with his exalted character, 
arid the dignity of the station he was about to fill. The 
barge was rowed by thirteen masters of vessels, — Thomas 
Randall, Esq., acting as cockswain, and commanded by 
Commodoi'e Nicholson. A deputation from the Senate 
and House of Representatives, together with the Chan- 
cellor of State, the Adjutant-General, and the Recorder 
of the city, proceeded to Elizabethtown in the barge, 
which was accompanied by two others, one being occupied 
by the Board of the Treasury, and the other by the 
Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Secretary of War. 

The embarkation took place on the morning of April 
23d — as clear and beautiful a day as could be desired. A 
salvo of artillery announced the departure of the flotilla 
from the Jersey shore, and the spectacle, as the fleet of 
boats which had joined the procession emerged from the 
narrow pass of the Kills into the noble bay of New York, 
was of the most animating description. From every point, 
the smaller craft, of all kinds and degrees, sped their way 
thither to join in the fleet. All the flags and nautical 
decorations upon which hands could be laid for the occa- 
sion were put in requisition, and were now fluttering in 
the breeze, as the thousand boats danced lightly over the 
blue waters, and the many thousands of oars, briskly plied, 
flashed in the sunbeams, as with every stroke they were 
lifted from the foam. Every ship in the harbor was gayly 
dressed for the occasion, excepting the Galveston, a Spanish 
man-of-war, which lay at anchor, displaying only her own 
proper colors. The contract which she presented when 
compared with the splendid flags and streamers floating 
from every other vessel in the bay, especially the govern- 
ment-ship, the North Carolina, was universally observed, 
and the neglect was beginning to occasion unpleasant 
remarks ; when, as the barge of the General came abreast. 
in an instant, as if by magic, the Spaniard displayed every 

38 



298 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

flag; and signal known among nations. This handsome 
compliment was accompanied by a salute of thirteen guns. 
Salutes were also fired from the North Carolina and the 
Battery of thirteen guns each. 

Stairs for the landing of the chieftain had been pre- 
pared upon Murray's Wharf, on arriving at which a salute 
was fired by a detachment of artillery commanded by 
Captain Van Dyck. He was there received by Governor 
Clinton, who made a congratulatory address on the occa- 
sion; together with the principal officers of the State, and 
the Mayor and Corporation of the city. There was a very 
large assemblage of people at the dock, waiting anxiously, 
but not impatiently, for the moment when they could 
greet the arrival of the great object of their proudest hopes 
and affections, and gratify their desires of looking — many 
of them again, and many others for the first time — upon 
that noble form and godlike countenance. There was no 
crowding for rank, or struggle for places, but all were 
respectful and decorous in their demeanor. One old man, 
whose head was frosted by upward of seventy winters, 
standing upon the wharf, was particularly noted as labor- 
ing under deep and evident emotion He succeeded in 
grasping the hand of the chieftain, and, as he passed along, 
audibly, but involuntarily, expressed himself as follows : — 
" I have beheld him when commanding the American 
armies ; I saw him at the conclusion of peace, returning 
to the bosom of his family in his primeval habitation ; and 
now I behold him returning to take the chair of the 
Presidentship. I have not now another wish but that he 
may die as he has lived, the beloved of his' country !" 

From the landing, the chief was conducted by a 
numerous procession, civil and military, through Queen 
Street to the quarters of Governor Clinton, at Faunce's 
Tavern,* the large and ancient structure yet standing in 

•* Also known as Bolton's and Sam Francis' Tavern. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 299 

Pearl Street, on the south-east corner of Broad. The 
military portion of the procession consisted of Captain 
Stokes's dragoons, Captain Van Dyck's artillery, the 
German Guards of Captain Scriba, a detachment of in- 
fantry under Captains Swartwout and Steddiford, and 
the artillery of Colonel Bauman. Next came the Cor- 
poration, with the public officers ; the President elect 
walked with Governor Clinton, his old companion in 
arms. The clergy followed in a body. The foreign 
ambassadors, in their carriages, came next, and the cit- 
izens promiscuously brought up the rear. The whole 
were under the direction of Colonel Morgan Lewis, mar- 
shal of the day, assisted by Majors Morton and Van Home. 

The day was one of unmingled joy. No former event 
of a civic character had more deeply arrested the public 
attention. The hand* of labor was suspended, and the 
various pleasures of the city were concentrated into a single 
enjoyment. All ranks and professions, with one universal 
acclaim, joined in the loud welcome to " the Father of 
his Country." The city was illuminated in the evening ; 
and many beautiful and appropriate transparencies were 
exhibited, creditable at once to the citizens who displayed 
them and to the artists by whom they were executed. 

The 30th day of April, 1789, was appointed by Con- 
gress for the august ceremony of inducting the first 
President of our Federal Union into his exalted 

1789. 

station. Pursuant to previous notice and concert, 
all the churches in the city were opened at nine o'clock on 
the morning of that day, and their respective congregations 
repaired to them, to unite in imploring the blessing of 
Heaven on the new government. In these enlightened 
days, when chaplains are voted out of legislative halls 
from a sensitive regard to the rights of conscience and the 
people's money, it may, perhaps, appear strange that such 
a concerted ceremony should have preceded the other 



300 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

duties of the day. But the truth is, our Revolutionary 
forefathers were a race of men sui generis, and they had a 
way of doing things peculiar to themselves. They were 
in the habit of imploring the blessing of Heaven on all 
their important undertakings, and of returning thanks for 
all signal blessings ; and, at the time of the establishment 
of the Federal Government, the march of mind had not 
yet been so rapid as altogether to have left this custom in 
forgetfulness. 

At twelve o'clock, a procession was formed under the 
conduct of Colonel Lewis, consisting of the same detach- 
ments of the State troops which had been detailed for the 
reception of the President elect on his landing. The 
President's house was then in Cherry Street, a few doors 
from Franklin Square, — which was at that period the 
court end of the town. The procession moved thence 
through Queen, Great Dock, and Broad Streets, until they 
arrived in front of the building called Federal Hall ; it 
having been determined that the ceremony of administer- 
ing the oath should take place in the open space in front 
of the Senate Chamber, which was on the second story of 
the building, and in full view of the people who should 
assemble in Wall and Broad Streets as spectators. Stop- 
ping at the proper distance, the procession was divided 
into two parallel lines, facing inwardly, and the " observed 
of all observers " passed through with stately and solemn 
tread, attended by John Jay, General Knox, Chancellor 
Livingston, and other distinguished gentlemen. They 
were conducted, first to the Senate Chamber, where the 
President elect was introduced to both Houses, assembled 
in convention to receive him. Thence the illustrious 
individual was conducted to the gallery or terrace before 
mentioned, overlooking the two streets in which the 
multitude had assembled. 

As the building under whose lofty pediment this im- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 301 

posing scene was exhibited has been so long swept from 
the face of the earth that few of the present generation 
have any distinct recollection of it, a description of it may 
aid our attempt to depict the sublime ceremony, which it 
is the principal design of the present chapter to bring 
before the reader. On the site of the old City Hall, which 
had served the provincials for a court-house, and was a 
mean, unsightly object, projecting awkwardly into Wall 
Street from the north, a noble edifice had been erected for 
the accommodation of Congress, on a plan and under the 
direction of Monsieur L'Enfant, a French architect, at 
that time in high repute, whose name we had occasion to 
mention in a preceding page. This building, like the first, 
projected into Wall Street, but permitted foot-passengers 
to continue their promenades through an arched way. 
Over this arcade was a balcony, the pediment projecting 
over, which was supported by four massive Doric pillars, 
dividing the open space into three parts, and forming an 
area similar in that respect to the divisions in Raphael's 
" Beautiful Gate of the Temple." After the adoption of 
the Constitution, this building was called Federal Hall.* 
Its front was upon Broad Street, which was terminated 
by it. Persons on the balcony would, consequently, be in 
full view from that street ; and it was there, within a few 
yards of the Hall, that a few select spectators took their 
stand. 

The Volunteer companies of infantry were paraded in 
front of the Hall on Wall Street. A troop of horse, uni- 
formed and equipped much after the manner of Lee's and 
Sheldon's dragoons (as may be seen in the picture of 
Jack Laughton, the hero of Cooper's " Spy," as painted by 
our distinguished countryman, Dunlop), were prominent 
figures. Of the foot-soldiers, the most conspicuous were 

* In later years, succeeded by the Custom-house, which is now the United 
States Sub-treasury 

ft 



J02 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 



two companies of grenadiers, one of which was composed 
of the tallest youths of the city, and the other was the 
company of Germans, commanded by Captain Scriba, 
many of whom had been the slaves of the Prince of Hesse 
Cassel, and other petty sovereigns in the German States, 
but who now gloried in the liberty purchased for them, 
and secured to them by those whom they had been forced 




OLD FEDERAL HALL. 

from their own country to assist in subduing. The first 
were dressed in blue, with red facings and gold-laced orna- 
ments, cocked hats with white feathers, with waistcoats 
and breeches, and black gaiters or spatterdashes, close- 
buttoned from the shoe to the knee, and covering the shoe- 
buckle. The second, or German company, wore blue coats, 
with yellow waistcoats and breeches, black gaiters, similar 
to those already described, and towering caps, cone-shaped, 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 303 

and faced with black bear-skin. A company in the full 
uniform of Scotch Highlanders, with the national music 
of the bagpipe, were seen among the military of the day, 
as also were several well-disciplined and well-equipped 
corps of light infantry and artillery. Colonel Lewis, 
the marshal, was assisted by Major Morton, acting aid- 
de-camp, as on the occasion of the landing one week 

before. 

Both Houses of Congress, having left their respective 
chambers to witness the ceremony, now quite filled the 
balcony and the space behind it. Every part of the build- 
ino- was thronged. From the balcony the view of Broad 
Street was as of one mass, a silent and expectant throng ; 
with faces upturned, they gazed upon the great object of 
their regard, as he came forth from the interior of the 
Hall, and took his place in the center of the balcony, 
between the two pillars which formed the boundaries of 
the middle compartment of the picture. He made his 
appearance in a plain suit of brown cloth, coat, waistcoat, 
and breeches, white silk stockings, and buckles of the sim- 
plest fashion in his shoes, and every article of his dress 
was of American manufacture* His head was uncov- 
ered, his hair powdered and dressed in the prevailing 
fashion of that day, completed the costume in which his 
tall, fine figure was presented to view, at the moment 
which formed that epoch in the history of nations. 

John Adams, the Vice-President, who had a few days 
previously been inducted into office without parade in the 
Senate, a short, athletic figure, in a somewhat similar 
garb, but with the old-fashioned Massachusetts wig, dressed 
and powdered, stood upon the right of the chieftain. Roger 
Sherman was seen in the group, a little behind, standing 
with Hamilton and many other sages ana' warriors, among 

* Adams was also entirely clad in American fabrics on the occasion here 
described. 



304 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

whom was the American artillerist, Knox, and the accom- 
plished Baron Steuben. 

Opposite to the President elect stood Chancellor Liv- 
ingston, in a full suit of black, ready to administer the 
oath of office. Between them, the Secretary of the Sen- 
ate, a small, short man, held the open Bible, upon a rich 
crimson cushion. The man on whom all eyes were fixed, 
stretched forth his hand with simplicity and dignity. The 
oath of office was administered. The Bible was raised, and 
his head bowed upon it to kiss the sacred volume. The 
Chancellor then proclaimed that it was done, in a full, 
distinct voice, and in the following words : " Long live 
George Washington, President of the United States ! " 
The silence of thousands was at an end, — the air was 
rent with acclamations, dictated by reason, and bursting 
from the hearts and tongues of men who felt that the 
happiness of themselves, their posterity, and their country 
was secured. 

The President bowed, and, having retired to the Hall 
of the Representatives, where the Senate also assembled, 
delivered his inaugural speech. Thence, the President, 
accompanied by the Vice-President, the Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, and the members of both 
Houses, repaired in procession to St. Paul's Church, where 
Divine service was performed by Bishop Provost, the 
Chaplain of the Senate ; and, before the adjournment of 
Congress, they passed a resolution requesting the President 
to issue his proclamation, recommending to the people of 
the United States to observe a day of thanksgiving and 
prayer, on account of the successful organization of the 
new Government. 

Such was the spectacle ; so simple, so dignified was 
this august ceremony ! Contrast it with the impious 
mockery of Heaven and the degrading pageantry displayed 
to mislead the children of earth, which attends the coro- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 305 

nation of European potentates, and every American must 
feel proud, and justly proud, when he contemplates the 
picture it presents of the institutions and manners of his 
own country ! " It seemed," said a young gentleman in a 
letter to a distant father, "to be a solemn appeal to 
Heaven and earth at once. Upon the subject of this great 
and good man," he added, "I may, perhaps, be an en- 
thusiast ; but I confess I was under an awful and religious 
persuasion that the gracious Ruler of the Universe was 
looking down at that moment with peculiar complacency 
upon an act which, to the American portion of His 
creatines, was so very important. Under this impression, 
when the distinguished Chancellor of New York announced, 
in a very feeling manner, the words ' Long live George 
Washington,' my sensibility was wound up to such a 
pitch that I could do no more than wave my hat with the 
rest, without the power of joining in the repeated accla- 
mations which rent the air." 

The proceedings of the clay had all been marked by 
that gravity and solemnity befitting the importance of the 
occasion. It was, however, a day of unmingled rejoicing; 
and, alter the more imposing civic and religious ceremonies 
were over, the popular feeling broke forth in the usual 
manifestations of gladness. The festivities closed by an 
illumination in the evening of unparalleled splendor, and 
by a display of fireworks under the direction of Colonel 
Bauman, of the artillery, which had only been equaled on 
this side of the Atlantic by the memorable pyrotechnical 
exhibition which took place at West Point during the 
Revolution, when our French allies were celebrating the 
birth of the Dauphin— the unfortunate young prince who 
subsequently, after his father's execution, himself fell a 
victim to that spirit of freedom which those French officers 
imbibed in this country, and which, running to riot after 
their return, drenched the whole surface of France in blood. 

39 



306 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Great pains had been taken by the principal citizens 
and the public authorities in the preparation of appropriate 
transparencies. At the foot of Broadway a splendid 
painting was exhibited, representing the Virtues of Forti- 
tude, Justice, and Wisdom, intended as emblems — the first 
of the President, the second of the Senate, and the third 
of the House of Representatives. Of the propriety of 
the first, the world had had the fullest evidence ; and the 
two others were well applied then, however great would 
be the solecism of such an appropriation of those attributes 
in later and more degenerate days. The Federal Hall 
was illuminated with great splendor, and attracted uni- 
versal attention. The Theatre, then situated at the corner 
of Fly-Market Slip, was likewise tastefully illuminated by 
various patriotic and attractive paintings. The ship North 
Carolina, lying off the Battery, displayed a glorious pyramid 
of stars, lustrous and beautiful as the lamps of heaven. 

The illuminations of private residences which attracted 
the greatest attention were those of the French and 
Spanish Ministers — the Count Moustier and Don Gardoqui. 
These Ministers both felt a lively interest in the rising 
destinies of the young republic, and lost no suitable occa- 
sion for testifying their friendship. Their houses were 
situated in Broadway, near the Bowling Green, and they 
seem to have exerted a generous rivalry in their prep- 
arations for celebrating this event. The illuminations of 
both were in a style of elegance and splendor alike novel, 
attractive, and beautiful. The doors and windows of 
Count Moustier displayed splendid borderings of lamps, 
with fancy pieces in each window of tasteful and compli- 
mentary designs. But the decorations of the Spaniard's 
mansion excelled. The tout ensemble formed a superbly 
brilliant front. The principal transparency represented 
the figures of the Graces, exceedingly well executed, 
among a pleasing variety of patriotic emblems, together 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 307 

with shrubbery, arches, flowers, and fountains. The effect 
was greatly heightened by the disposition of moving pic- 
tures of persons and figures in the background, so skillfully 
devised and executed as to present the illusion of a living 
panorama in a little spot of fairy land. 

But we will not dwell too long upon the incidents of 
this joyful evening, as other objects crowd upon our atten- 
tion. The inauguration was succeeded by a round of fetes 
of a different description, the recollection of which it is 
our design briefly to revive, before concluding the present 
chapter. 

For several subsequent days the time of the President 
was much occupied in receiving visits, official and un- 
official, of individuals, societies, and public bodies, calling 
to pay their respects to the first magistrate. In all 
instances, their reception was such as still more to endear 
the illustrious man in their affections ; for, although inured 
to the camp, and in earlier life to the still rougher service 
of border warfare in the wilderness, no one could dispense 
the courtesies of the drawing-room, or the ceremonies of 
state, with more true dignity, blended with 'a just, measure 
of affability and condescension, than Washington. 

Extensive preparations had been made by the sub- 
scribers to the city dancing assemblies to pay the Presi- 
dent the compliment of an Inauguration Ball. The 
honored lady of the chieftain, however, had not accom- 
panied her august husband to New York, but was to 
follow in a few days. The anxiety for her arrival was, 
therefore, great ; though, of course, proportionally less 
than it had been for the President elect himself. But a 
.short time intervened before her approach to Elizabeth- 
town was announced, accompanied by the lady of Robert 
Morris, of Philadelphia — then in the Federal Senate. She 
was met by the President at Elizabethtown Point, who 
proceeded thither, with Robert Morris and several other 



308 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

gentlemen of distinction, in the barge already described, 
rowed, as before, by thirteen eminent pilots, in handsome 
white dresses. The passage through the bay again pre- 
sented a brilliant spectacle ; a salute was fired on passing 
the Battery ; and, on her landing, she was welcomed by 
large crowds of citizens who had assembled to testify their 

The ball was truly an elegant entertainment. The old 
" City Assembly Rooms," in which it took place, were in 
a large wooden building standing upon the site of the old 
City Hotel.* In addition to the distinguished pair for 
whom it was given, it was honored by the Vice-President, 
the Speaker of the House, and most of the members of 
both branches of Congress ; Governor (George) Clinton, 
Chancellor Livingston, Chief- Justice Yates, of New York; 
the Hon. John Jay, General Knox, the Commissioners of 
the Treasury; James Duane, Mayor of the city; the 
Baron Steuben, General Hamilton, the French and Spanish 
Ambassadors, and many other distinguished gentlemen, 
both Americans and foreigners. Never was a lady, either 
in public or private life, more popular than Mrs. Washing- 
ton ; and, from the moment of her arrival, the most 
respectful attentions had been paid to her by the principal 
ladies of the city, and by those likewise of celebrity from 
a distance. A numerous and brilliant collection of ladies 
consequently graced the saloon with their presence, and 
the decorations were such as in all respects comported 
with their presence and the proud occasion. Among the 
leading circles were the lady of his Excellency Governor 
Clinton, Lady Sterling, Lady Mary Watts, Lady Kitty 

* The City Hotel — the Astor House of that day, and built by Ezra Weeks — 
stood on the west side of Broadway, on the block from Thames to Cedar 
Streets, and was for many years the most distinguished establishment of the 
kind in the country. It was the site of the " King's Arms Tavern " of a 
hundred years previous, which was also in its day one of the most prominent 
points of interest in the " fashionables " of " old New York." 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 309 

Duer, La Marchioness De Brehan, Mrs. Langdon, Mrs. 
Dalton, Mrs. Duane (the Mayoress), Mrs. Peter Van 
Brook Livingston, Mrs. Livingston, of Clermont; Mrs. 
Chancellor Livingston, the Misses Livingston, Lady 
Temple, Madame de la Forest, Mrs. Montgomery, Mrs. 
Knox, Mrs. Thomson, Mrs. Gerry, Mrs. Edgar, Mrs. 
McComb, Mrs. Lynch, Mrs. Houston, Mrs. Griffin, Mrs. 
Provost, the Misses Bayard, and many others of the most 
respectable families in the State and from abroad. The 
whole number of ladies and gentlemen at the fete exceeded 
three hundred. 

There was more of etiquette in the arrangements for 
this complimentary ball than was thought by some to be 
exactly consistent with our republican institutions, and 
more, in fact, than was altogether agreeable to the feelings 
of him in whose honor it was observed. In connection 
with the managers of the assemblies, Colonel Humphries 
and Colonel William S. Smith were selected to adjust the 
ceremonies, and their arrangements were reported to have 
been as follows :— At the head of the room, upon a plat- 
form handsomely carpeted, and beneath a rich drapery of 
curtains and banners, was placed a damask-covered sofa, 
upon which the President and Lady Washington were to 
be seated. The platform was ascended by a flight of 
three or four steps. The costume of the gentlemen was 
prescribed ; their hair was to be dressed in bao-s, with two 
long curls on the sides, with powder, of course, and all 
were to appear and dance with small swords. Each 
gentleman, on taking a partner to dance, was to lead her 
to the sofa, and make a low obeisance to the President 
and his lady, and repeat the ceremony of respect before 
taking their seats after the figure was concluded. The 
decorations of the assembly-room were truly splendid and 
very tastefully disposed. 

At that time there had been no more brilliant assem- 



310 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

blage of ladies in America than were collected on this 
occasion. Few jewels were then worn in the United 
States, but in other respects their dresses were rich and 
beautiful, according to the fashions of the day. We are 
not quite sure that we can describe the full dress of a lady 
of rank at the period under consideration so as to render 
it intelligible. But we will make the attempt. One 
favorite dress was a plain celestial blue satin gown, with 
a white satin petticoat. On the neck was worn a very 
large Italian gauze handkerchief, with border stripes of 
satin. The head-dress was a pouf of gauze, in the form 
of a globe, the crcneaux or head-piece of which was com- 
posed of white satin, having a double wing, in large plaits, 
and trimmed with a wreath of artificial roses falling from 
the left at the top to the right at the bottom in front, and 
the reverse behind. The hair was dressed all over in 
detached curls, four of which, in two ranks, fell on each 
side of the neck, and was relieved behind by a floating 
chignon. 

Another beautiful dress was a perriot, made of gray 
Indian taffeta, with dark stripes of the same color, having 
two collars, the one yellow and the other white, both 
trimmed with a blue silk fringe, and a reverse trimmed in 
the same manner. Under the perriot they wore a yellow 
corset or boddice, with large cross stripes of blue. Some 
of the ladies with this dress wore hats a VEspagnole of 
white satin, with a band of the £ame material placed on 
the crown, like the wreath of flowers on the head-dress 
above-mentioned. This hat, which, with a plume, was a 
very popular article of dress, was relieved on the left 
side, having two handsome cockades, one of which was 
at the top and the other at the bottom. On the neck 
was worn a very large plain gauze handkerchief, the ends 
of which were hid under the boddice, after the man- 
ner represented in Trumbull's and Stuart's portraits of 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 311 

Lady Washington. Round the bosom of the perriot a 
frill of gauze, a la Henri IV, was attached, cut in points 
around the edge. 

There was still another dress which was thought to be 
very simple and pretty. It consisted of a perriot and pet- 
ticoat, both composed of the same description of gray 
striped silk, and trimmed round with gauze, cut in points 
at the edges in the manner of herrisons. The herrisons 
were, indeed, nearly the sole trimmings used for the per- 
riots, caracos, and petticoats of fashionable ladies, made 
either of ribands or Italian gauze. With this dress they 
wore large gauze handkerchiefs upon their necks, with four 
satin stripes around the border, two of which were narrow 
and the others broad. The head-dress was a plain gauze 
cap, after the form of the elders and ancients of a nunnery. 
The shoes were celestial blue, with rose-colored rosettes. 

Such are descriptions of some of the principal cos- 
tumes of the ladies who graced the inauguration ball of 
Washington ; and, although varied in divers unimportant 
particulars by the several ladies, according to their respect- 
ive tastes and fancies, yet, as with the peculiar fashions of 
all other times, there was a general correspondence of the 
outlines, the tout ensemble was the same. 

The President and his lady were introduced and con- 
ducted through the saloon to the seat provided for them 
by Colonel Humphries— a man of fine accomplishments 
and manners. General Knox had just been appointed 
Secretary of War, and his lady had been charged with so 
far resembling Ccesar as to have been somewhat " ambi- 
tious." Be that as it may, it was said in those days that 
she so arranged her own movements as to enter the saloon 
with the President and his lady, following them to their 
station and ascending the steps, with the evident design 
of obtaining an invitation from the President to a seat 
upon the honored sofa. Unluckily, however, the seat was 



312 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

too narrow for the accommodation of three persons, and the 
lady of the war minister, with deep and apparent mortifi- 
cation, was compelled to descend to the level of those who 
had shown themselves to be less openly aspiring. No other 
incident worthy of especial note occurred during the even- 
ing, or none which attracted particular attention. 

Among the gayest and most courteous of the cavaliers 
present was the Baron Steuben. Well educated and bred 
in a German court, having also mingled much in the 
splendid court circles of Louis XV, in Paris, where he had 
usually passed his winters previous to his emigration to 
America, the manners of this gallant officer were formed 
upon the best model of graceful ease, affability, and dig- 
nit}-. He was thus, perhaps, as well qualified to teach 
the tactics of the drawing-room as those of the field ; but, 
too much of the real gentleman to appear in the least 
degree assuming, he was a universal favorite. His dress 
was of rich black silk velvet, with the star of his order 
upon his breast, and he had ever some witty or playful 
remark for every person and every occasion, which was 
received with additional interest from his German accent 
and the little and often ludicrous mistakes to which he was 
liable from his imperfect knowledge of the English idioms. 

The saltatory exercises were such as were usual in 
those times and on great occasions. There are a few of 
both sexes yet living who then mingled in the dance, but 
the incidents of the festive night linger in their memories 
like the fragments of a broken vision in times that are 
passed. They remember only that the exercises went on 

" With smooth step 
Disclosing motion in its every charm, 
To swim along and swell the mazy dance." 

presenting to the eye, as in Milton's beautiful description, 

" Mazes intricate, 
Eccentric, intervolved, yet regular 
Then most, when most irregular they seem." 



HISTORY OF NEW TORE CITY. 313 

The illustrious chieftain himself did not hesitate to 
countenance the elegant amusement by participation, as 
the heroes and statesmen of antiquity, the demi-gocls of 
the Greeks and Romans, had done before him. Mrs. Peter 
Van Brook Livingston and Mrs. Hamilton were succes- 
sively honored by the chieftain's hand in a cotillion. He 
afterward danced a minuet with Mi<s Van Zandt. subse- 
quently the lady of William Maxwell. Esq., vice-president 
of the bank. There was dignity and grace in everv 
movement of this incomparable man. But in the minuet, 
which is held to be the perfection of all dancing, he 
appeared to more than his wonted advantage. The min- 
uet contains in itself a compound variety of as many 
turnings in the serpentine, which is the line of beauty, 
as can well be put together in distinct quantities, and is, 
withal, an exceedingly fine composition of movements. It 
is. therefore, the best of all descriptions of dancing to dis- 
play .the graces of person and attitude, and never did the 
majestic form of Washington appear to greater advantage 
than on the present occasion of elegant trilling. There 
was. moreover, youth and beauty in the countenance, grace 
in the step, and heaven in the eye of his fair partner. 

Shortly after the brilliant spectacle which we have thus 
attempted but imperfectly to describe, the President was 
complimented by another similar/efe, which he also honored 
by his presence, given by the French minister. The pageant 
was one of uncommon elegance, both as it respected the 
character of the company and the plan of the entertainment. 
As a compliment to the alliance of the United States and 
France, there were two sets of cotillion dances in complete 
uniforms. The uniform of France was worn by one set, 
and that of the United States — the Revolutionary blue and 
buff — by the other. The ladies were dressed in white, 
with ribands, bouquets, and garlands of flowers, answer- 
ing to the uniforms of the gentlemen. But it would be 

40 



314 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

alike wearisome and unnecessary to enter into further 
particulars 

The levees of President Washington were far more 
select and courtly than are those of the Presidents of 
later days. They were numerously attended by all that 
was fashionable, elegant, and refined in society; but there 
were no places for the intrusion of the rabble in crowds, or 
for the more coarse and boisterous partisan, the vulgar 
electioneerer, or the impudent place-hunter, with boots, 
and frock-coats, or roundabouts, or with patched knees 
and holes at both elbows. 

Proud of her husband's exalted fame, and jealous of 
the honors due, not only to his own lofty character, but 
to the dignified station to which a grateful country had 
called him, Mrs. Washington was careful in her drawing- 
rooms to exact those courtesies to which she knew he was 
entitled, as well on account of personal merit as of official 
consideration. Fortunately, moreover, democratic rude- 
ness had not then so far gained the ascendancy as to ban- 
ish good manners, and the charms of social intercourse 
were heightened by a reasonable attention in the best cir- 
cles to those forms and usages which indicate the well- 
bred assemblage, and fling around it an air of elegance 
and grace which the envious only affect to decry, and the 
innately vulgar only ridicule and contemn. None, there- 
fore, were admitted to the levees but those who had either 
a right by official station to be there, or were entitled to 
the privilege by established merit and character, and full 
dress was required of all.* 

* Some show, if not of state, at least of respect for the high officer they were 
to visit, was exacted down to the close of Mr. Madison's administration. Mr. 
Monroe required less formality and attention to dress, and the second President 
Adams less still. But respect and reverence for the office still kept the multi- 
tude, who had no business there, from the President's drawing-rooms until the 
year 1829, when — but tcmpora mutantur ! 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 315 

Mrs. Washington was a pleasing and agreeable, rather 
than a splendid woman. Her figure was not commanding, 
but her manners were easy, conciliatory, and attractive. 
Her domestic arrangements were always concerted under 
her own eye, and everything within her household moved 
forward with the regularity of machinery. No daughter 
of Eve ever worshipped her lord with more sincere and 
affectionate veneration ; and none had ever cause to render 
greater or more deserved homage. When absent, he was 
ever in her thoughts, and her mild eyes kindled at his 
presence. She was well educated, and possessed strong 
native sense, guided by all necessary prudence and dis- 
cretion. She rarely conversed upon political subjects, and 
when the most expert diplomatists would attempt to draw 
her out, she had the faculty of turning the course of con- 
versation with equal dexterity and politeness. At all the 
President's entertainments, whether at the table or in the 
drawing-room, notwithstanding the regard to etiquette 
heretofore adverted to, there was, nevertheless, so much 
kindness of feeling displayed, and such an unaffected degree 
of genuine hospitality, that golden opinions were won 
alike from the foreign and domestic visitors. 

In those days late hours were not necessary to fashion ; 
and many of our fair metropolitan readers, w ho are in the 
habit of dressing at ten to enter a distant drawing-room at 
eleven, will doubtless be surprised to learn that Mrs. 
Washington's levees closed always at nine ! This was a 
rule which that distinguished lady established on the 
occasion of holding her first levee, on the evening of 
January 1st, 1790. The President's residence was in the 
Franklin House, at the head of Cherry Street. " The 
day," says a letter* of John Pintard, Esq.— who was then 
in the hey-day of youth and life, mingling with the 
fashionable world—" was uncommonly mild and pleasant. 

* To Colonel Morris, of the New York Mirror. 



316 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



It was about full moon, and the air so bland and serene, 
that the ladies attended in their light summer shades. 
Introduced by the aids and gentlemen in waiting, after 
being seated, tea, coffee, plain and plum cake were handed 
round. Familiar and friendly conversation ensued, and 
kind inquiries, on the part of Mrs. Washington, after the 
families of the exiles, with whom she had been acquainted 




WASHINGTON'S RESIDENCE IN 1790, AS IT APPEARED IN 1850. 

during the Revolutionary War, and who always received 
marked attention from General Washington. Mrs. Wash- 
ington stood by the side of the General in receiving the 
respects of the visitors. * * * * Amid the social chit- 
chat of the company, the Hall clock struck nine. Mrs. 
Washington thereupon rose with dignity, and, looking 
around the circle with a complacent smile, observed : ' The 



HISTORY OF SEW YORK CITY. 317 

General always retires at nine, and I usually precede 
him.' At this hint the ladies instantly rose, adjusted 
their dresses, made their salutations and retired." 

General Washington had, on that day, been waited 
upon by the principal gentlemen of the city, according to 
the ancient New York custom of social and convivial 
visiting on that day. " After being severally introduced, 
and paying the usual compliments of the season," says 
Mr. Pintard, " the citizens mutually interchanged their 
kind greetings, and withdrew, highly gratified by the 
friendly notice of the President, to most of whom he was 
personally a stranger." In the course of the evening, 
while speaking of the occurrences of the day, Mrs. Wash- 
ington remarked : '-Of all the incidents of the day, none 
so pleased the General," by which title she always desig- 
nated hiin, " as the friendly greetings of the gentlemen 
who visited him at noon." To the inquiry of the Presi- 
dent, whether it was casual or customary, he was answered 
that it was an annual custom, derived from our Dutch 
forefathers, which had always been commemorated. After 
a short pause, he uttered these remarkable words : " The 
highly-favored situation of New York will, in the process of 
pears, attract numerous emigrants, who will gradually change 
its ancient customs and manners ; but let whatever changes take 

place, NEVER FORGET THE CORDIAL, CHEERFUL OBSERVANCE OF 

new-year's day." 



CHAPTER III. 

In the year 1792, the construction of the Tontine 
Building was begun by an association of merchants, orga- 
nized in 1790, and incorporated in 1794, under the 

1792. 

name of the " Tontine Association." Its object was 
to provide a business center for the mercantile community. 
The original building fronted what was then known as 
Coffee-house Slip — now the corner of Wall and Water 
Streets. The merchants had long felt the need of some 
place where they could assemble and discuss the probable 
results of trade and the various questions of the time, and, 
during their leisure, indulge in a cup of prime old coffee, 
without walking to their distant homes in State Street, 
Bowling Green, and the lower part of Greenwich Street. 
Among the merchants who pushed forward the enterprise 
were John Broome, John Watts, Gulian Verplanck, John 
Delafield, and William Laight. In the vicinity of Broad 
and Pearl Streets was the old Merchants' Coffee-house ; and 
in front of that, on December 1st, 1791, the sheriff of New 
York, Marinus Willett, sold under a writ of venditioni expo- 
nas, the dwelling and lot of land then " in the tenure and 
occupation of Anthony Bleecker, formerly held by Francis 
Lucas, and known as No. 22 Wall Street, reserving the 
right of way, ' if they have any right to it,' through an 
alley adjoining one side of the said property, and leading 
from the adjoining farm and garden of Francis Clark." 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 319 

The property was purchased by the five merchants already 
mentioned, for the sum of £2,510, and held by them under 
the provisions of the Tontine Association, as its first board 
of directors. 

On the 31st of January, 1792, the same gentlemen 
bought of Dr. Charles Arding and Abigail his wife, " all 
that certain corner house and land bounded south-easterly 
by Water Street, south-westerly by Wall Street, north- 
westerly and south-easterly by houses and land lately pur- 
chased by them," for the sum of £1,970, current money 
of the State of New York. On August 22d, 1792, Hugh 
Gaine, Thomas Roach, and John Keese, commissioners 
appointed by the Court of Common Pleas, then called the 
Mayor's Court, in settling the large estate of the late Mor- 
decai Gomez, chocolate-maker, conveyed to the same board 
of directors, for the sum of £1,000, "all that certain mes- 
suage and lot of land situate, lying, and being in the Sec- 
ond Ward, formerly the East Ward, of the City of New 
York, bounded south-easterly in front by Water Street, 
north-westerly in the rear by a part of a lot of land lately 
purchased by the parties to these presents of the second 
part, of the sheriff of the city and county of New York, 
under a decree of the Court of Chancery; north-easterly 
by a house and lot of land late the property of Joseph 
Royall, deceased, and south-westerly by a house and lot 
of land lately purchased by the said party of Dr. Charles 
Arding, and containing in breadth in front and rear at 
each end, eighteen feet four inches, and in length on each 
side thirty feet, English measure." 

This transaction completed the purchases of land for 
the Tontine Coffee-house, and the massive building given 
in the cut on next page, with its heavy wooden cornice, 
railed balcony, and long stoop or piazza, with steps at each 
end, soon rose from the ruins of the houses of Mordecai 
Gomez and Dr. Arding. 



320 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



There was another Tontine society called the New 
York Tontine Hotel and Assembly Rooms' Association, 
and on September 27th, 1793, Peter De Lancey and Eliz- 
abeth his wife, sold to Philip Livingston, John Watts, 
Thomas Buchanan, Gulian Verplanck, James Watson, 
Moses Rogers, James Farquhar, Richard Harrison, and 
Daniel Ludlow, a lot of land bounded east by Broadway, 
west by Temple Street, south by Thames Street, and north 




TONTINE COFFEE-HOUSE AS IT APPEARED IN 1812. 

by Little Queen Street, subject to such rights of survivor- 
ship as the majority of the subscribers should decide. 
Some years after, during a season of sharp political 
excitement, the Fifth Ward Tontine was started, for the 
purpose of making real-estate owners of enough young 
men to carry a majority vote in the election. The vote 
was cast, but the city authorities declared it illegal, and 
that association caused no further public notice. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 321 

On the completion of the Tontine Coffee-b^use, the 
Merchants' Exchange was removed to it from the dilapi- 
dated building in the middle of Broad Street, below Pearl, 
where it had been since the war. 

In 1793 war was declared between France and Eng- 
land ; and on the 9th of April, five days after the news 
was received at New York, Citizen Genet arrived at 
Charleston as the accredited Minister to the United States 
from the new French republic. The war placed this Gov- 
ernment in an embarrassing position ; for, bound to France 
by obligations of gratitude as w T ell as by the conditions of 
a treaty of alliance, it was pledged also by the Federal 
policy to preserve a strict neutrality in European wars. 
Alexander Hamilton, at the head of the Federalists, in- 
sisted that the treaty had been annulled by the change in 
the French government ; or, in any event, did not apply 
in case of an offensive war. Washington inclined to the 
latter opinion ; and, while he received Genet as the Min- 
ister of the republic, proclaimed the strictest neutrality 
in respect to warlike operations. This greatly displeased 
the anti-Federalists, who cheered on the new republic, and 
aided Genet in fitting out privateers to cruise against the 
enemies of France. Genet reached New York on the 8th 
of August, and was welcomed by salvos of artillery and 
pealing bells, saluting republican France. On the 12th of 
June, the Ambuscade, which had brought Genet to Amer- 
ica, arrived at New York, and her officers and crew were 
received and entertained with much enthusiasm by the 
anti-Federalists. The Liberty Cap was hoisted on the flag- 
staff of the Tontine Coffee-house, and all true patriots 
exhorted to protect it ; tri-color cockades were worn ; the 
" Marseillaise" was sung ; and, for a time, New York wore 
almost the aspect of a French city. 

During the year ending April 2d, 1811, the association 
was called to mourn the decease of Gulian Verplanck, 

41 



322 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

William Laight, and John Broome. The board of directors 
was reduced to John Watts and John Delafield, who, in 
conformity with the second section of the Constitution — 
that, whenever the trustees, in whom the fee-simple is 
vested, be reduced to less than three, then five others should 
be elected, and the property conveyed to them — transferred 
their trust to Richard Varick, Matthew Clarkson, Francis 
B. Winthrop, John B. Coles, and Gulian Ludlow. The old 
Coffee-house was then in full operation, but who can tell 
us of the scenes therein 1 Who can call back the voices 
of the old merchants of that day, and repeat the stories 
they often laughed over in the Coffee-house on " opening 
night?" 

At length the Merchants' Exchange moved further up 
Wall Street, and sales of merchandise were not so frequent 
within the old house, but the long stoop on the Wall 
Street front was still used, and the advertisements of the 
day read, " At X o'clock, in front of the Tontine Coffee- 
house, will be sold ." 

In 1826 and 1827 the Tontine Coffee-house was in the 
hands of John Morse, who had formerly kept the old 
Stage-house at the corner of Church and Crown Streets, 
New Haven. He turned the entire house into a tavern, 
and it so remained for several years. The first floor was 
in one room, running the full length of the house, and 
fronting Wall Street. At the back of the room, extending 
nearly its whole length, was the old-fashioned bar. Jutting 
out from the counter were curious arms of brass supporting 
the thick, round, and mast-like timber on which the heavy 
dealers leaned while ordering refreshments. About the 
room were numerous small tables, and after supper, in fair 
weather, around the tables could be seen many of the 
wealthy city men diminishing the contents of their pewter 
mugs, or planning, amid the curling smoke in the room, 
their operations for the next day. Morse was not success- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 323 

ful in the Tontine, and was finally sold out for the benefit 
of " whom it might concern." 

In 1832, it was kept as a hotel by Lovejoy & Belcher, 
and was the scene of several brilliant Masonic dinners. 
The lodges, in annual parade, would march from the City 
Hotel, on Broadway, down to Broad Street ; through 
Broad to Pearl, and through Pearl Street to Wall and the 
Coffee-house — which they thought a long tramp. After 
the banquet, the march would be resumed along Pearl 
to Beekman Street, up Beekman to Chatham Street, down 
Chatham to Broadway and the City Hotel. 

In 1834, the Court of Chancery issued a decree re- 
moving the restrictions by which the Tontine Association 
were required to maintain the building as a Coffee-house, 
and it was then leased for general business purposes. In 
1834, two brothers named Hudson came to New York, 
from Boston, and established on the first floor of the house 
a news-room, on the plan of that one now in Pine Street, 
near William. They also originated the Express news- 
paper, the early numbers of which were printed in the 
old Tontine. 

The balcony had been removed, the interior of the 
building somewhat changed, but the memory of happy 
hours spent within its walls thrilled the hearts of the 
gallant bands of men who composed the old volunteer Fire 
Department when the bells struck off the first alarm for 
the great fire of 1835. 

Down through the narrow streets, amid the rush and 
roar of the flames, the dense volumes of smoke and the 
crash of falling warehouses, the firemen fought for every 
inch of ground. Streets were obliterated by the ruins, 
block after block of stores and dwellings vanished in the 
crimson cloud that surged and rolled over them. At 
length the flames reached the old Tontine, and the cornice 
took fire. Among the bravest of the brave throughout 



324 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

that fight was the daring company of Engine No. 10. As 
the cry went out, " There goes the old Tontine," the 
brakes of No. 10 began to work with great vigor, and a 
stalwart fireman, who held the pipe, directed the stream 
against the threatened building. The atmosphere, un- 
usually cold even for December, caught the spray from the 
upward stream and dashed it in icy particles back on the 
face and clothing of the sturdy pipeman. Three times 
the cornice caught fire, and each time the pipe of No. 10 
saved the Tontine. The plucky fireman was John Belts, 
formerly a clerk with Hoffman & Glass, auctioneers, after- 
wards with Glass & Gerard, and more recently of the 
firm of Gerard & Betts. He is still living, and will 
doubtless remember that, when he gave up the pipe at 
the Tontine fire, the palms of his gloves, frozen to the 
pipe, were left on it when he went away. 

After the fire, and in 1836, the Hudson Brothers gave 
up the news-room, and the lessee of the building, Peter 
McCarty, engaged Mr. James W. Hale to continue the 
establishment, which was then called " Hale's News-room." 
Mr. Hale occupied the whole of the lower floor as the 
news-room ; and Caldwell & Kenyon kept a restaurant in 
the basement. Caldwell & Kenyon afterwards sold out to 
Charles Ridabock, familiarly known as the " Alderman." 
Charles was a heavy, good-natured German, who kept the 
dirtiest shop and the best oysters in the city. He had 
been for many years an employee of George Washington 
Brown, at the Auction Hotel, in Pearl Street. He re- 
mained at the Tontine until just before the house was 
torn down. 

In 1813, the Legislature changed the name to the 
" Tontine Building," and gave the management of its 
affairs into the hands of " The Committee of the Tontine 
Building." 

The old Tontine was also the birth-place of what is 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 325 

now one of the institutions of our country — its express 
system. It was here, in 1837, that Mr. J. W. Hale 
originated the package and letter express business, and 
started William F. Harnden for Boston, three times a 
week, with his little carpet-bag seldom more than half 
full. His only advertisement was a slate hung up in the 
News-room, and in a stationer's office at the corner of 
Nassau and Wall Streets. The first customers of the 
express were the visitors to Hale's News-rooms. 

As there were no lines of mail steamers then running, 
foreign correspondence was always sent by packet-ships 
and other sailing vessels, the letter-bags for which were 
kept at Hale's, as were also those of the steamers Sinus 
and Great Western, after they commenced running to 
New York. 

In 1855, the New York Journal of Commerce, speaking 
of the Tontine Coffee-house, said : 

" There are few, however, whose age links them to the olden time, when it 
was the chief center of the commercial interests, who cannot recall scenes 
within its walls ' the like whereof we ne'er shall see again.' A public meeting 
convened within its roof, sent forth a decision which was almost universally 
respected. As a single instance of this, let us turn back for forty years, when 
the habit of distributing expensive scarfs to bearers and others at ordinary 
funerals was so prevalent, that many poor families were sorely pinched to 
provide this necessary mark of respect for a departed relative. Some benevo- 
lent individuals, seeing the evil influence of such a fashion, called a meeting 
at the Coffee-house, when nearly two hundred of those whose weight of 
character gave force to their decisions, signed a pledge to abstain from the 
custom of distributing scarfs, except to the attendant ministers and physicians. 
This was the death-knell of the oppressive fashion. In matters of more vital 
moment, when great public interests were at stake, a voice has gone out from 
the Coffee-house, which, like a recent echo from Castle Garden, has been 
heard throughout the length and breadth of the land. Some of the noblest 
charities, too, which the world has ever witnessed, received their first contri- 
butions beneath this time-hallowed roof. 

"But the history of this organization is highly instructing in another 
point of view. The longevity of the nominees has been remarkable, we 
believe, beyond any similar experiment of the kind ever witnessed. It is true 
that the circumstances under which their names were selected would naturally 
lead us to expect for them a longer average period of existence, but this average 
has been so far extended as to be quite extraordinary. Of the two hundred 
aud three, whose names were handed in about sixty-one years ago, fifty-one 



326 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Btill survive ! Of these, the youngest is about sixty-two, and the oldest eighty- 
three. This is about one-third greater longevity than the average of European 
estimates. Only three of the nominees died in 1854, or one in every eighteen, 
which, considering their average age, was very remarkable." 

In 1855, during the month of May, the old building 
was demolished, and the ground leased to Mr. William H. 
Aspinwall, with the condition that he should pay to the 
Tontine Association, as rent, the sum of $5,500 per 
annum, and should pay all taxes and assessments levied 
by the city upon the ground, and upon such buildings as 
should be upon it ; also, that the said lease should expire 
and all the buildings upon the ground should revert to the 
association when by death the nominees should be reduced 
to seven. Mr. Aspinwall caused the erection of the present 
building soon after he obtained the lease. 

The walls are of Massachusetts yellow free-stone, the 
keystones in the arches of the windows and doors being of 
the same material. On the left of the picture, on the 
Wall Street front, is seen the narrow alley mentioned in 
the title deeds, showing that the heirs of Francis Clark 
had the right of way in 1791.* 

The death of Mr. John P. De Wint, at Fishkill, in 
November, 1870, severed the last link in the Tontine 

* The interior is cut up into offices, a large shaft near the rear of the hall- 
way giving room for the main staircase and the facilities for ventilation. The 
history of the building since 1855 has not differed so much from that of others 
in the vicinity as to make a detailed sketch of it necessary, but an incident of 
1858 may be worth relating. The office of Messrs. W. T. Coleman & Co., the 
shipping merchants, was on the first floor of the new building, and the senior 
member of the firm was seated at his desk one afternoon, busily examining 
the papers of a California ship nearly ready to sail. A hack was driven up to 
the door. A moment after, a hearty slap on the shoulder started Mr. Coleman, 
and the nasal tones of a gentleman from " down East " resounded in his ear — 
" Saay, Squire, jest yeou give me the best room in ther heouse, will yer?" 

Mr. Coleman. — " This is not a tavern, sir. It's the office of the California 
packets." 

Stranger. — " No ! Well, I hain't been to York for thirty year, but used to 
come pretty often then, and always stopped at the old Tontine Coffee-house." 

Mr. Coleman kindly directed the stranger to the Astor House, and thither 
the old guest of the Tontine was hurried. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



327 



chain, the lease of the building terminated, the property 
reverted to the owners of the shares represented by the 
surviving seven nominees, and the affairs passed into the 
hands of Mr. Frederick De Peyster, and Mr. W. T. Horn, 
as attorney. The surviving nominees are Robert Benson, 
Jr., William Bayard, Gouverneur Kemble, Horatio Gates 
Stevens, Daniel Hoffman, Mrs. William P. Campbell, and 
Mrs. John A. King. The heirs of George Bright, who 
died two years after he nominated Gouverneur Kemble, 




TONTINE BUILDING AT THE PRESENT DAY. 



have yet to be found. The property will then be sold, 
and the Tontine Association, like the old Coffee-house, 
things of the shadowy past, will go down into the grave 
of memory with its epitaph, " Well done," written on it by 
the merchants of New York.* 

On the 12th day of May, 1789, about two weeks after 
General Washington had taken the oath of office, as the 

* This sketch of the Tontine Association is taken from an article pub- 
lished in the New York Journal of Commerce, July 25th, 1871. 

For the constitution of the Tontine Coffee-house, in 1796, see Appendix 
No I. 



328 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

first Chief Magistrate of the United States, the oldest 
political organization in the city now in exist- 
ence, and which has recently (1871) been the 
subject of much obloquy — the Tammany Society, or Col- 
umbian Order — was instituted.* 

The year following (1790), a most interesting event 
in the history of this organization occurred, which, at the 
time, excited considerable interest among the citi- 
zens of New York. The United States had long 
been desirous of forming a treaty of friendship and alli- 
ance with the Creek Indians, and various unsuccessful 
attempts had been made to effect this object. At length, 
Colonel Marinus Willet went to that nation, and induced 
Alexander McGilvery, a half-breed, with about thirty of 

* The history of the origin of this name— which is involved in much 
obscurity — is as follows : — St. Tammany was the name of an Indian chief, who 
has been popularly canonized as a saint, and adopted as the tutelary genius of 
one branch of the Democratic party. Tammany or Tammenund (the name is 
variously written), was of the Delaware nation, and lived probably in the 
middle of the seventeenth century. He resided in the country which is now 
Delaware, until he was of age, when he moved beyond the Alleghanies, and 
settled on the banks of the Ohio He became a chief sachem of his tribe, and, 
being always a friend of the whites, often restrained his warriors from deeds 
of violence. His rule was always discreet, and he endeavored to induce his 
followers to cultivate agriculture and the arts of peace, rather than those of 
war. When he became old, he called a council to have a successor appointed, 
after which the residue of his life was spent in retirement ; and tradition 
relates that " young and old repaired to his wigwam to hear him discourse 
wisdom." His great motto was, " Unite in peace for happiness, in war for 
defense." Where and by whom he was first styled Saint, or by what whim 
he was chosen to be the patron of the Democracy, does not appear. 

The New York Daily Gazette for May 12th, 1790, contains the following 
li6t of the officers of this order : 

"The* Society of St. Tammany, being a national society, consists of 
Americans born, who fill all offices, and adopted Americans, who are eligible to 
the honorary posts of warrior and hunter. 

" It is founded on the true principles of patriotism, and has for its motives, 
chanty and brotherly love. - 

" Its officers consist of one grand sachem, twelve sachems, one treasurer, 
one secretary, one door-keeper; it is divided into thirteen tribes, which 
severally represent a State ; each tribe is governed by a sachem, the honorary 
posts in which are oae warrior and one hunter." 



HISTORY OP NEW YORK CITY. 329 

the principal chiefs, to come to this city. The Tammany 
Society determined to receive them with great ceremony. 
The members, at that day, were accustomed to dress 
in the Indian costume, and on this occasion they wore 
feathers, moccasins, leggings, painted their faces, and 
sported huge war-clubs and burnished tomahawks. When 
the Creeks entered the wigwam, they were so surprised to 
see such a number of their own race, that they set up a 
whoop of joy which almost terrified the people present. 
On the occasion of this interview, Governor George Clin- 
ton, Chief-Justice Jay, Mr. Duane, the Mayor, Mr. Jef- 
ferson, Secretary of State, and other distinguished men 
were present. The Creeks were overjoyed with their 
reception ; they performed a dance, and sang the E-tho 
song. Mr. Smith, the Grand Sachem of the Society, made 
a speech to the Indians, in which he told them that, 
although the hand of death was cold upon those two 
great chiefs, Tammany and Columbus, their spirits were 
walking backward and forward in the wigwam. The Sag- 
amore presented the chiefs with the calumet, and one of 
them dubbed the Grand Sachem " Tuliva Mico, or Chief 
of the White Town." In the evening they went to the 
theater, attended by the Sachems and members. Before 
they left the city they entered into a treaty of friendship 
with " Washington, the Beloved Sachem of the Thirteen 
Fires," as they were pleased to call him. 

In June, of the same year, the Society established a 
museum for the purpose of collecting and preserving every- 
thing relating to the history of the country. A room was 
granted for its use in the City Hall, and Gardiner Baker 
was appointed to take charge of the collection. In 
1794, it was removed to a brick building standing 
directly in the middle of the street, at the intersection of 
Broad and Pearl Streets, called the Exchange. The lower 
part was used as a market, but the upper part, being light 

42 



330 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

and airy, was well calculated for displaying the many 
curiosities which now, by the indefatigable exertions of 
Mr. Baker, had been collected. On the 25th of 
June, 1795, the Society passed a resolution relin- 
quishing to Gardiner Baker all their right and title to the 
museum. He had taken so much pains and incurred so 
much expense in getting it up, that he could, with good 
reason, make a claim upon it. It was, therefore, given up 
to him, upon condition that it should be forever known as 
the " Tammany Museum," in honor of its founders, and 
that each member of his family should have free access to 
it. This museum, after the death of Baker, was sold to 
Mr. W. I. Waldron, and, after passing through various 
hands, formed the foundation of what was afterwards 
called the " American" or " Scudder's Museum," in Chat- 
ham Street.* 

In September of the same year (1795) the city was 
visited by that dreaded scourge, the yellow-fever, when 
seven hundred and thirty-two persons died from the dis- 
ease. In speaking of the situation at this time, the New 
York Journal, of October 17th, says: "This city has been 
in a truly melancholy situation ; although the accounts 
of the mortality have been greatly exaggerated in the 
country. Consternation has added greatly to the distress 
of the city ; the poor have suffered much, but their wants 
have been liberally supplied from the hands of benevolent 
donors. Very little business has been done — a solemn 
calm has reigned through every street. We are now 
blessed with salubrious western gales, which are conceived 
to be sent in mercy, and presage to our hopes that the 
city will be free from the epidemic in a little time. It 
certainly puts on a less terrible hue — not more than one 

* History of the Tammany Society, by R. G. Horton. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 331 

in twenty dies. Those who have died were the greatest 
part new residents." 

In the month of December, 1796, the Fish-market was 
torn down for the purpose of arresting a very destructive 
fire. This conflagration is thus noticed in the 
Minerva* for December 9th, 1796: "About one 
o'clock this morning, a fire broke out in one of the stores 
on Murray's Wharf, Coffee-house Slip. The number of 
buildings consumed may be from fifty to seventy — a 
whole block between the above slip, Front Street, and 
the Fish Market. The progress of the fire was finally 
arrested by cutting down the Fish Market." 

So many fires occurring at about the same time, led 
many of the citizens to believe that the slaves were again 
conspiring to destroy the city. Great excitement was 
caused and much preparation made to guard against such 
a calamity. The same paper, of the 14th instant follow- 
ing, says : — " Serious Cause of Alarm : Citizens of New 
York, you are once more called upon to attend to your 
safety. It is no longer a doubt — it is a fact, that there 
is a combination of incendiaries in this city, aiming to 
wrap the whole of it in flames ! The house of Mr. Lewis 
Ogden, in Pearl Street, has been twice set on fire — the 
evidence of malicious intent is indubitable — and he has 
sent his black man, suspected, to prison. Last night an 
attempt was made to set fire to Mr. Lindsay's house, in 
Greenwich Street — the combustibles left for the purpose 
are preserved as evidence of the fact. Another attempt, 
we learn, was made last night in Beekman Street. A bed 
was set on fire under a child, and his cries alarmed his 
family. Rouse, fellow-citizens and magistrates ! your lives 

* The Minerva (then edited by Noah Webster) a few years afterwards 
changed its name to the New York Commercial Advertiser, Zachariah Lewis 
assuming its editorship. In 182-1 it again changed hands, Messrs. Stone and 
Hall becoming its proprietors. 



332 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

and property are at stake. Double your night-watch, and 
confine your servants" 

The Common Council, on the 15th December, passed 
resolutions offering five hundred dollars reward for the con- 
viction of offenders, and recommended that good citizens 
in the several wards should arrange themselves into com- 
panies or classes, " to consist of such numbers as shall be 
necessary for the purpose of keeping such watch for the 
safety of the city." A citizen of that day, in writing to a 
friend, also says : " The yellow-fever produced not such 
extraordinary commotion. The present alarm, as it is 
contagious, may be called the fire-fever" The " fever," 
however, soon died out, as the precautions taken had the 
desired effect, even if there had been any actual design of 
conspiracy. 

In the summer of 1798 the city was again visited by 
the yellow-fever ; and so fearful was it in its effects this 
time that the year was known for many years afterward as 
the " Dreadful yellow-fever year." It came on so suddenly 
that many were seized with it before they were really 
aware of its presence. So fatal was it in August that 
nearly one half of the cases reported died ; but, before it 
had run its course, the proportion diminished one third. 
The horror of the situation, moreover, was greatly in- 
creased by the fact that the country people, becoming 
naturally alarmed, would not bring their produce into the 
city, although every encouragement was given them. 
" No fees [licenses ?] were demanded of the country people 
bringing provisions to our markets." The committee ap- 
pointed to afford relief to the indigent and distressed sick, 
in a communication to the public, say : " We entreat our 
fellow-citizens of the surrounding country not to withhold 
from the markets the usual supplies of poultry and small 
meats, as well as other articles so essentially necessary to 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 333 

both sick and well, in this city, in this distressed season."* 
These appeals were, it is pleasant to know, answered by 
many of the citizens who had left the city ; while others, 
living in New Jersey, Long Island, and elsewhere, sent 
large sums of money, as well as gifts of beef, pork, mutton, 
butter, cheese, flour of all kinds, poultry and vegetables 
hy the wagon and sloop load. But, notwithstanding all 
that was done to alleviate it, the ravages of the fever were 
frightful, since 2,086 deaths were registered in a few short 
months — a very large proportion, considering the popu- 
lation of the city at this time. 

Indeed, many of the slabs which still appear in the 
grave-yards of Trinity and St. Paul's, in the midst of the 
crowded and busy street, mark the resting-places 
of the victims of this fell destroyer. Sad, however, 
is the reflection how very short a period do the memorials 
reared to the memory of the dead, by the hand of sur- 
viving friendship and affection, endure ! A few, a very 
few, brief years, and the head-stone has sunk, the slab is 
broken, the short column, or shaft, overturned. Yet, 
while they do remain, they are often mementos of many 
interesting incidents or endearing recollections. 

An incident of this description, connected with the 
pestilence of the } 7 ear, now rises upon the memory ; and, 
as its relation will wound none among the living, we will 
repeat it. 

There is a humble free-stone now standing in Trinity 
Church-yard, so near the street that the bright and laugh- 
ing eyes of beauty and pleasure can look upon it any day 
as their possessors are tripping along Broadway. It 
stands beneath the tree at the corner of Trinity Buildings, 
now 111 Broadway; and the inscription yet retains the 
name of Mrs, Isidore Johnson. The deceased was young 

* Daily Adoertiser, September 28th, 171)8. 



334 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

and beautiful, full of intelligence and vivacity when she 
was married, a few months before the breaking out of the 
fever. One Sunday afternoon, soon after the fever had 
commenced, and before there was much alarm, walking 
down Broadway, leaning upon the arm of her husband, by 
whom she was adored, and whom she adored in turn, in 
company with a friend, who was also newly married, the 
topic of conversation naturally turned upon the epidemic. 
Mrs. Johnson, whose natural buoyancy of spirits perhaps 
imparted, even at that moment, an appearance of light- 
heartedness she did not feel, was remarkably lively and 
cheerful. In passing the spot we have indicated, where 
the tree was then casting its refreshing shade upon the 
green sward beneath, she suddenly stopped, and, looking 
up into her husband's face with a sweet, though slightly 
pensive smile, remarked with the utmost naivete, " There, 
husband, if I die of the yellow-fever, bury me here." On 
the very next Friday, she was buried there ! 



CHAPTER IV. 

The opening of the nineteenth century found New 
York vastly improved. As commerce and trade revived, 
it was found necessary to enlarge the grounds of 
the city, and give it a more presentable appearance 
to the many foreigners who had already begun to flock 
thither for trade. The city now numbered twenty-three 
thousand souls, exclusive of a floating population, large 
even for that early day. Reade and Duane Streets were 
laid out and opened to the public in 1794. The waste 
grounds around the Collect were filled in and graded ; a 
canal, following the present Canal Street (whence the 
name), was cut through from the Collect to the North 
River, with a view of draining the Lispenard meadows ; 
the beautiful lake was filled up and made firm ground ; 
the grade of Broadway, from Duane to Canal Streets, was 
determined upon by the city authorities ; the streets had 
received numbers ; the United States Navy-yard, at 
Brooklyn, had been begun ; the plan of the present modern 
city, with its parallel streets and broad avenues, had been 
adopted ; Washington, Union, Madison, and Tompkins 
Squares had been laid out ; the great salt meadow on the 
eastern side of the city had been drained, and already, in 
imagination, divided into building-lots ; and, as the grand 
step in this march of improvement, New York received, 
in 1790, her first sidewalks, which were laid on both sides 



336 HISTORY OF jSEW YORK CITY. 

of Broadway, from Vesey to Murray Streets. True, these 
sidewalks were only narrow pavements of brick, scarcely 
allowing two lean men to walk abreast, or one fat man 
alone ; still they were far preferable to walking in the 
middle of the streets on cobble-stones, especially if a person 
had corns. At this time, also, Nassau and Pine Streets 
were what the upper part of Fifth Avenue is now. Pearl 
(then Queen) Street, from Hanover Square to John Street, 
was the abode of wealth and fashion. Wall Street, now 
given over to the sordid purpose of Mammon, was the gay 
promenade on bright afternoons, and there many a gallant's 
heart has been pierced by glances shot from beneath the 
frizzled locks of the fair sex ; while the beaux, with their 
powdered curls before, and their neat black silk bags 
behind the head, their laced ruffles, and desperately square- 
toed shoes, were equally comme il faut. The City Hall 
stood at the foot of Nassau Street. Just below it was tLc 
elegant mansion of Mr. Gulian Verplanck, and imme- 
diately opposite, on the corner of Broad Street, vas the 
Watch-house ; while further down, at the corner of New 
Street, stood Becker's Tavern, then a place of great resort. 
In Nassau Street resided the Jays, Waddingtons, Rad- 
cliffes, Brinckerhoffs, and other prominent families. Where 
the Merchants' Exchange now stands were the residences 
of Thomas Buchanan, Mrs. White, and W. C. Leffingwell ; 
while in Pearl Street were the fashionable dwellings of 
Samuel Denton, John Ellis, John J. Glover, John Mowatt, 
Robert Lennox, Thomas Cadle, John B. Murray, Lieu- 
tenant-Governor Broome, Andrew Ogden, Governor George 
Clinton, and Richard Varick. Near the location of the 
present City Hall was the Alms-house, with the Bridewell 
on one side and the prison on the other. Grenzeback's 
grocery stood where French's Hotel now stands. There 
were but three or four buildings on the block where 
Tammany Hall lately stood, one of which, nearly on the 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 337 

present site of the Tribune Building, was a place of great 
resort for military men The only remnants of the neigh- 
borhood at that time are the wooden shanties, with their 
moss-covered roofs, which now disfigure Chatham Street, 
opposite Center.* 

In regard to the society and social life of the city at 
this period, it is true that New-Englanders had even then 
begun a brisk emigration thither, but the Dutch inhabit- 
ants as yet greatly preponderated, while the Anglo-New- 
Yorkers considerably outnumbered the new citizens from 
the Eastern States. The simple, kind-hearted, and unos- 
tentatious manners of the Dutch had not, however, disap- 
peared, although great inroads had been made upon them. 
Still, the good vrows and their daughters were to be seen 
occasionally, in the gray of the summer evening, sitting 
upon their stoops, saluting their passing acquaintances, or 
talking to their neighbors at the adjoining door, or even 
across the narrow streets, in a social and friendly man- 
ner. More frequently yet might the worthy old Knicker- 
bocker be observed on his porch, refreshing himself in the 
cool of the evening with the soothing influences of his pipe 
— that friend of indolent meditation and genuine inactive 
philosophy. 

The manners of the Anglo-American population were 
entirely different. Previous to the Revolution, the royal 
governors, most frequently noblemen, had kept up the 
pageantry of a little court in the metropolis, which was 
often graced by the presence of ladies and gentlemen who 
had received the advantages of polished and refined soci- 
ety abroad. The lengthened occupation of New York, as 
the head-quarters of the British army, moreover, had 
served to continue much intelligent and accomplished 



R. O. Horton's History of the Tammany Society. 
43 



338 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

society in the city during the contest of the Revolution, 
the advantages of which were by no means lost by the 
residents ; and the effects of these associations had not 
been rubbed off by contact with democratic rusticity. 
Many American officers, likewise, with their families, of 
education and gentle breeding, if not of noble extraction, 
had returned from the wars and settled down in the city ; 
who, in addition to the advantages of foreign travel and 
kindred society at home, had more recently been associ- 
ated with the splendid array of officers from La Belle 
France — among whom were the veteran Count Rocham- 
beau and the gallant Lafayette — sent hither to fight the 
battles of freedom, and carry back to their own country 
the sacred fire of liberty kindled at the American altars. 
These had left the impress of their gay and agreeable 
manners upon the more English gravity of our own ; so 
that the " good society " of that period, in New York, 
deserved the appellation. Equally removed from the 
imputed English taciturnity on the one hand, and the 
apparent frivolity and loquacity of the French on the 
other, it was just what it ought to be — easy, graceful, and 
intelligent, and totally different from the puritanical pre- 
cision which, at that time, prevailed to a far greater 
extent in New England than at present. All, therefore, 
was novelty to the young stranger who chanced to be in 
the city — as well in the manners of society in its different 
national classifications as in the extent and construction 
of the city itself; for nothing, to an unsophisticated eye, 
could appear more odd and grotesque than the primitive 
Dutch architecture of New York. 

If we suppose a stranger to be on a visit to the city at 
this period, he probably visited the old red building called 
a theater, in John Street, to see the Othello of John 
Henry, and the Desdemona of his wife ; the Falstaff of 
Harper, the Hallams, and Wignell, Jefferson, and others 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 339 

of the corps dramatique, who were then strutting their brief 
hours upon the stage. In his afternoon rambles for exer- 
cise, he frequently accompanied his friends to the garden 
of " Katey Mutz," at Wind-mill Hill — more recently the 
site of the Chatham Street Chapel — for a draught of 
mead ; for the making of which " Aunt Katey," as she was 
familiarly called, was particularly celebrated. From this 
favorite place of resort he would, perhaps, stroll through 
the meadows and orchards along the Bowery road, and 
thence into the woods towards Corlear's Hook ; which, 
though now a densely peopled portion of the city, was 
then a long walk into the country. His favorite ramble, 
however, when alone, was to the hickory grove of Mr. 
Nicholas Bayard, on the North River side, in that section 
of the present city lying between Canal and Charlton 
Streets. There was a spring of pure water here, and the 
shady trees rendered it a charming place for solitary 
meditation. Occasionally he drove out to the head of the 
King's Road, and on the west side to Lake's "Hermitage." 
near what is now the beginning of the Sixth Avenue. 
More frequently, however, he dropped in at the "Ranelagh 
Garden " to take a glass of ale or an ice of Jones, near the 
Hospital. Again, if provided with letters to the principal 
residents, he would, on a clear afternoon, walk up the new 
road (now Broadway) as far as the beautiful country-seat 
of Andrew Elliott, Esq.,* an English gentleman, who had 
acted as Lieutenant-Governor under the Crown during a 
portion of the time that the city was in British occupa- 
tion. After spending an hour very agreeably with Mr. 
Elliott, who was on the eve of taking his final departure 
from this republican clime to one more congenial to his 
feelings, he set out, towards evening, on his return to the 
city — taking the grove at Bayard's spring in his way. 

* Now the corner of Tenth Street and Broadway — where A T. Stewart's 
iron store stands — and well known as the Sailor's Snug Harbor property. 



340 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Meeting there some of his acquaintances, they strolled 
together leisurely across the Lispenard meadows, and just 
as the sun was sinking into his golden bed, called in at 
the Mount Vernon Gardens, a fashionable place of retreat 
at the White Conduit House, then situated at some dis- 
tance from the city, near what is now the corner of 
Leonard Street and Broadway. While seated in a rural 
alcove, partaking of some of the ordinary refreshments of 
such places, conversations of interest arose, mingled with 
interesting stories and lively anecdotes, which caused the 
friends to take no note of time, until they were startled 
by the bells of St. Paul's pealing out the hour of nine. 

The friends separated hastily, and our visitor, thread- 
ing his way slowly along the narrow and inadequately 
lighted streets, either returned to his lodgings at the City 
Hotel, or, if previously introduced, paid a visit to the 
Belvidere Club, at the house erected b}' that memorable 
association of good fellows, on the hill beyond the seat of 
Colonel Rutgers, which has been dug away within the 
last forty years and built over upon a dead level. The 
Belvidere Club was composed chiefly of foreigners, in- 
cluding some of the professional gentlemen and merchants 
of the city. They played lightly, gave excellent dinners, 
and did not drink to excess, or rather, to what in those 
days was counted excess. The house referred to as hav- 
ing been built by the Club, was an elegant establishment, 
standing upon one of the most charming sites in the 
suburbs of the city, overlooking the town, with its beauti- 
ful harbor, and a handsome section of Long Island. There 
was also the Hardenbrook Club in existence at the same 
period ; but its associates were hard drinkers, and our 
visitor had no fellowship for such. Not being inclined to 
become a member, even if his stay in the city had not 
been short, he merely visited them a few times as a guest, 
and as a matter of curiosity. 






HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 341 

There were, however, other enjoyments at his com- 
mand of a higher order, and, being a student, much more 
to his taste. The bar of New York at this time presented 
a noble array of knowledge and talent. .There were lit- 
erally " giants" in those days, among whom were the elder 
Samuel Jones, John Jay, Robert Troup, Richard Harrison, 
Brockholst Livingston, William Duer, John Cozine, Josiah 
Ogden Hoffman, and Chief-Justice Lansing — at this time 
in the full meridian of their high professional career. 
Alexander Hamilton also, though a few years younger 
than those just mentioned, was fast soaring to the pinnacle 
of his splendid intellectual course, as also was his able and 
subtle rival, by whose hand he subsequently fell. It was 
the delight of the young student to visit the courts and 
witness the intellectual conflicts of these great men, where 
the richest treasures of deep and varied learning were 
disclosed, and the art of eloquence exerted to its highest 
perfection — where mind grappled with mind, and, dis- 
daining the petty subtleties and technicalities of the 
profession, the champions stood forth in their own majesty 
and strength, contending like men, and yielding only after 
all had been done for their clients that could be achieved 
by the power and weight of learning and the splendor of 
eloquence. 

These were likewise times of high political excitement. 
Parties under the lead of Hamilton and Burr respectively, 
were forming in strong friendship or violent opposition. 
Frequent public meetings were held, and the ablest states- 
men in the city often took part in these primary assem- 
blages. Night after night did the old Union Hotel in 
William Street resound with the oratory of the distin- 
guished popular leaders of the day, and often was our 
visitor among the most delighted of the auditors. He 
was ever gratified with the antagonistic feats of mind, 
whether at the bar, or upon the tribune of the people — 



342 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

whether exercised in close, logical, and nervous argument, 
or in the more showy exhibitions of popular declamation — 
whether imbued with wisdom, or sparkling with wit, — 
the brisk assault and the tart reply. 

One of these exhibitions of forensic ability was wit- 
nessed in a remarkable criminal trial that took place in 
March of the present year. The last week of the pre- 
ceding year (1799) had been signalized by the 
occurrence of a most mysterious murder, which at 
the time threw the city into great excitement, and for 
many clays afterwards furnished the principal topic of 
conversation among its citizens. In itself, the incident 
might not be deemed of sufficient importance to allude to, 
were it not for the fact that the trial of the suspected 
murderer, as before hinted, called forth the splendid 
abilities of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. 

The case to which allusion is here made was as fol- 
lows : An exceedingly comely young woman, Juliana 
Elmore Sands by name, was taken, one Sunday afternoon, 
to ride, by Levi Weeks, a young man, and a nephew of 
Ezra Weeks, who built the City Hotel. The following 
Thursday the body of the girl was found at the bottom of 
the " Manhattan Well," just above the present line of 
Spring Street, between Greene and Wooster Streets, pre- 
senting every appearance of having been foully dealt 
with.* The young man, who had been her companion on 
the previous Sunday, was at once arrested and placed 
on trial for willful murder. Alexander Hamilton, Aaron 
Burr, and Brockholst Livingston were retained for the 
defense ; and during the trial, which lasted two days and 

* Called the " Manhattan Well " from the fact that the " Manhattan Com- 
pany," in searching round the city and suburbs for water, found a spring, which 
they caused to be dug out several feet and made into a well. In the end, how- 
ever, they decided that it would not answer their purpose ; and it was accord- 
in o-ly left curbed and covered, retaining ever afterwards the name of the " Man- 
hattan Well." 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 343 

nights, the former two exhibited, in a marked degree, 
the individual traits for which they were distinguished. 
In conversation recently with a gentleman, now (1871) 
ninety-four years old, he described to me the character- 
istics of each of those great men as they appeared upon 
the trial, of which he was an eye-witness. Hamilton, it 
seems, was more of an orator than Burr. His style was 
flowery, and his oratory graceful, fluent, animated, and 
impassioned. Burr, on the contrary, was cool and impos- 
ing in manner, collected and dispassioned in reasoning, 
and confined himself, in argument, to a few strong and 
prominent traits. Nevertheless, the latter did not always 
depend upon argument, but resorted occasionally to what 
would now be called "stage effect," to carry his point. At 
least this seems to be a fair inference from a circumstance 
that occurred during this trial. It appears that at first 
all the testimony pointed to the prisoner as the mur- 
derer, and the evidence of one witness, in particular, was 
so strong that it became plain that unless his testimony 
could be broken down, the case for the defense would be 
lost. The trial had lasted all the afternoon, and when it 
grew towards dusk, Burr called his clerk to him, and, in an 
aside, ordered a lighted candle to be brought in when he 
should give a signal. Burr meanwhile, continued to cross- 
question and harass the witness, constantly insinuating 
that he himself was the perpetrator of the deed, until, 
having succeeded in confusing him, he made the sign. 
The lighted candle was thereupon handed him ; when, 
suddenly holding it full in the face of the witness, he 
exclaimed, in his most telling manner, " Behold the mur- 
derer ! " This completed the discomfiture of the witness ; 
and, after a charge by Chief-Justice Lansing, a verdict of 
acquittal was rendered by the jury. 

In 1803, De Witt Clinton was appointed Mayor of the 




THE GRANGE— HAMILTON'S RESIDENCE. 





RICHMOND HILL— BURR'S RESIDENCE. 




TOMB OP ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 







DUELING GROUND — WEEHAWKES. 



348 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

on the " Weehawken Dueling Ground," opposite Thirty- 
first Street, marked the exact spot of the fatal encounter ; 
and even as late as 1860, a cedar-tree, against which 
Hamilton stood, while the seconds were arranging the 
preliminaries, was still standing. Now, however (1871), 
the newly-completed road-bed of the West-side Railroad 
has destroyed the tree, besides removing every vestige of 
the narrow ledge on which the principals stood.* 

The year 1807 is also one yet more memorable, not 

only in the city's history, but in that of the United States 

and the globe. In that year was witnessed the 

1807. 

successful introduction of steam navigation. " Who 
shall say," writes Dr. Osgood, " what steam navigation 
has done to emancipate mankind from drudgery, and con- 
struct society upon the basis of liberty ? It is science 
turned liberator ; and the saucy philosophy of the eight- 
eenth century become the mighty and merciful helper of 
the nineteenth century. To us, individually and generally, 
how marvelous has been the gift ! Wherever that piston- 
rod rises and falls, and those paddles turn, man has a 
giant for his porter and defender. The liberty of the 
nation has been organized under its protection ; and the 
great States of the Mississippi valley and the Pacific 
coast are brought within one loyal affinity, and build their 
new liberties upon the good old pattern of our fathers. 
Clinton and Fulton — the one identified with the rise of 
steam navigation, the other with the Erie Canal — are 
names that belong to universal history, as having given 

* The details of this duel have been so often given that we may properly 
omit them here. But one recent landmark of the city, connected with that 
event — viz., Richmond Hill, where Burr was residing at the time, and at the 
foot. of which the boat was moored that conveyed him across the river to meet 
Hamilton on that fatal morning — has entwined around it so many interesting 
memories that our readers will thank us for giving a sketch of it from the 
scholarly pen of General Prosper M. Wetmore, who wrote it originally for The 
Historical Magazine. This sketch will be found in Appendix No. II. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 349 

America its business unity, and brought its united wealth 
to bear upon the industry and commerce of the world." 

But, notwithstanding the place which Dr. Osgood 
assigns to Fulton, justice requires it to be stated that to 
John Fitch, and not to Robert Fulton, belongs the honor 
of inventing the steam-boat. 

Probably no person has received so much praise, and 
deserved it so little, as Robert Fulton. A man of no 
practical ingenuity — of no power of conceiving, much less 
of executing, an original mechanical idea — his friend 
Golden has succeeded in persuading the public that to him 
alone is due the successful navigation of our rivers by 
steam. The facts, however, as I gathered them from the 
late Bishop Potter, of Pennsylvania, who in turn received 
them from Chancellor Livingston himself, are as follows : 
Thirteen years before Fitch experimented with his steam- 
boat upon the Collect in New York, he had, as is well 
known, run a little steamer on the Delaware, between 
Philadelphia and Bordentown, with great success. During 
that period he had experimented with various kinds of 
propelling power — the screw, the side-wheel, and sweeps 
or long oars. The most primitive thing about his vessel 
was the boiler, which consisted simply of two potash 
kettles, riveted together. Mr. Livingston, who was greatly 
interested in the success of Fitch's experiments,* seized 
the opportunity, when Minister to France, to visit the 
workshops of Watt and Bolton, in England, where, for the 
first time, he saw a properly constructed steam-boiler. But 
how was he to introduce it into the United States, unless 
(which was then impossible) he went there himself] At 
this crisis he thought of Robert Fulton, who, originally an 
artist in Philadelphia, was then exhibiting a panorama in 

* The Chancellor had previously expended large sums in boats and 
machinery for navigating the Hudson by steam, and obtained an act giving him 
the exclusive right to do so in 1798. This was three years before he saw Fulton. 



350 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Paris. His panorama, however, failing to pay, was at- 
tached, and he himself arrested for debt and thrown into 
prison. Livingston also, at this time, had in his possession 
the plans, models, and draivings of what was afterwards the 
successful steam-boat, which he had obtained from the 
American Consul, then residing at Havre, who, in turn, 
had purchased them of Fitch, when the latter, com- 
pletely discouraged, and a stranger in France, utterly 
destitute, had given up in despair. Livingston, falling 
into the error so common to many, of believing that, 
because an artist can draw cleverly, he must necessarily 
succeed equally well in mechanical conception and execu- 
tion, paid off Fulton's debts, and sent him over to New 
York with one of James Watt's boilers. Fulton, how- 
ever, thoroughly incompetent and untrustworthy, failed 
to rise to the occasion ; and when Livingston returned, a 
year after, he found his pet project precisely where he had 
left it several years before. He, therefore, at once took 
hold of it himself, and by his energy and perseverance, 
finally brought his idea to a successful issue — Fulton, 
whom he could not entirely shake off, acting as a kind of 
general superintendent. These facts, moreover, are con- 
firmed not only by the late President William A. Duer, 
in his New Yorker (Letter 7th), but by Mr. Ransom 
Cook, now (1871) living at Saratoga Springs, N. Y. Mr. 
Cook informs me that, in the summer of 1837, he was 
in the city of New York, engaged upon his electro- 
magnetic machinery. Among his workmen were two 
who had been employed by Livingston and Fulton, while 
those gentlemen were perfecting their steam-boat. They 
surprised him greatly by stating that Fulton was a capital 
draughtsman, and that was all. They added, that he was 
so deficient in a knowledge of the laws of mechanics as 
to furnish daily mirth for the workmen, and that it was a 
long time before Livingston could convince him that the 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 351 

" starting-bar " of an engine should be made larger at the 
fulcrum end than at the handle !* 

On the 7th of August, 1807, the first steam-boat, the 
Clermont, constructed and finished under the nominal 
superintendence of Robert Fulton, encouraged by Chan- 
cellor Livingston, stood in the stream opposite Jersey 
City, ready at a signal to start on her way to Albany. 
Thousands of citizens lined both banks of the river, and 
filled every kind of available water-craft with the expec- 
tation of witnessing the utter failure of " Fulton's Folly " 
— as they had tauntingly christened the new boat — and 
of having the satisfaction of saying, " I told you so." But 




THE CLERMONT. 

that sentence was never to be uttered ; for, at the word 
from the alleged inventor, the wheels began to revolve, 
slowly at first, then faster and faster, until " Fulton's Folly " 
vanished up the river, leaving the scoffers staring after it 

* In the above statement regarding the claims of Fitch and Fnlton to be considered the 
inventors of the steam-boat, I have written what I believe to be the true facts of the case. It 
i> far from my wish, however, to do injustice to any one, and I therefore here give a portion 
of a letter written to me by Mr. J. H. B. Latrobe. of Baltimore, Md. Mr. Latrobe recently 
read a paper before the Maryland Historical Society, designed to show that Mr. Nicholas J. 
Roosevelt, of New York city, was the real inventor of the present side-wheels to the steam- 
boat. This paper has been published, and is accessible to those wishing to pursue the ques- 
tion further. Mr. Latrobe writes : " It was Fulton who made the plans and superintended the 
work of the Clermont. The Chancellor was wholly incompetent. He was an inventor in a 
small way.-— a man, rather, of ideas to be carried out by others. His inventions, or his idea, 
wanted the merit of practicability. I have letters on letters ot his— original letters — which prove 
this beyond question. An able lawyer; a statesman, too. he was but a smatterer in the sci- 
ences that involve accuracy in the mechanic arts. This is the impression his correspond- 
ence gives me. So it would you. Fulton, a miniature painter, a panorama-man, a torpedo- 
man, a man of shifts through necessity, was a man of resources. There are papers in my 
collection that abundantly prove this. * * * Willi regard now to Fitch. I mention him 
in my monograph. There is a drawing somewhere ot his boat, but he was not the first who 
had the idea of steam. Many had it. He practically antedated the Chancellor, and Roosevelt, 
and Fulton with his vertical paddles or oars ; but you are the first that I have ever heard say 
that he had anything to do with vertical wheels on the sides, which was the success. Had it 
been as you state, it would have come out in the proceedings before the Legislature of New 
Jersey, at Trenton, on the very river where his experiments took place. The merit of Roose- 
velt was that he not only suggested, but described the mechanical details of construction of 
these wheels— and this to the Chancellor, too 1 It was not to Fitch, but to two New- Yorkers, 
of the old Knickerbocker stock, too. that the Bide wheel boat owes its origin— Roosevelt, who 
suggested and described it, while working at the Chancellor's imoracticability. * * * ' 



352 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 



with blank visages and open mouths. The triumph was 
complete— jet to Fitch, not Fulton, belongs the honor. 

In the summer of 1867, I chanced to be a passenger 
on one of the swift and fairy-like steamers that ply in the 
day-time between New York and Albany.* While passing 




VIEW AT CATSKILL LANDING. 

Catskill, the birth-place of Thurlow Weed, the latter, who 
was also a passenger, was reminded of an incident of his 

* In the course of the trip mentioned in the text, the distance between 
West Point and Newburg — ten miles — was made in twenty minutes and a half, 
nearly thirty miles an hour. The speed of the boat (the Ghauncey Vibbard) on 
this occasion was timed by Mr. Weed, Mr. Erastus Brooks, of the Express, and 
Mr. Wilkes, of the Spirit of the Times. This time becomes the more remark- 
able when it is stated that, at the time, the steam-boat had five hundred and 
fifty passengers on board. The speed of Fulton's boat was about six miles an 
hour ! The Chauncey Vibbard and 2%os. Powell are at present considered the 
fastest boats in the United States, if not on the globe. In this connection, also, 
it will be interesting to give the following account of the dimensions and speed 
of the Clermont. The Clermont was 100 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 7 deep. 
The following advertisement appeared in the Albany Gazette on the 1st of Sep- 
tember, 1807:— 

"The North Biver Steam-boat will leave Paulus-Hook [Jersey City] on 
Friday, the 4th of September, at 9 in the morning, and arrive at Albany at 9 in 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 353 

boyhood, connected with the first trip of the Clermont, 
which he related to the little circle gathered around him : 
"Sixty years ago, this very day," said Mr. Weed, "the 
first steam-boat passed up the Hudson from New York to 
Albany. The news spread like wild-fire, although there 
was then no telegraph, and the banks of the entire river 
were almost literally lined with people, to whom the first 
steam-boat was a much greater wonder than the Great 
Eastern to the present generation." To be on the bank, 
however, was not enough for Mr. Weed ; so, stripping off 
his clothes and placing them on a rude raft improvised for 
the occasion, he swam out into the stream, pushing the 
raft before him ; and from an island (now forming the 
main-land) he watched in actual fear and trembling, the 
singular, and to him weird, spectacle — 

" A peaceful bark o'er the waters sped, 
As the monster form drew near ; 
From his perilous post the helmsman fled, 
And the hailing captain bade with dread 
From her demon-wake to steer. 
* * • * * * * * # k 

" From the fishermen's cabins the inmates burst, 
And were moved in their panic to say, 
That the ghosts of the Dutchmen had risen from dust 
To smoke their great pipes with a terrible gust, 
And hasten from Gotham away." * 

the afternoon. Provisions, good berths, and accommodation are provided. The 
charge to each passenger is as follows : 

Dollars. Hours. 

To Newburg 3 00 14 

" Poughkeepsie 4 00 17 

" Esopus 5 00 20 

" Hudson 5 50 30 

" Albany 7 00 36 

" Mr. Fulton's new steam-boat," said the same paper, on the 5th of October, 
"left New York on the 2d, at 10 o'clock, A. M., against a strong tide, very 
rough water, and a violent gale from the north. She made a headway, against 
the most sanguine expectations, and without being rocked by the waves." 

Mr. Charles Dyke, who died in 1871, at the age of eighty-five years, in 
this State, was the engineer of Fulton's little trial steamer, the Clermont, 
at the time she made her first trip from New York to Albany, on the 7th of 
August, 1807. 

* The First Steamboat by Mrs. Sigourney. 
45 



354 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY, 



It was not, however, until 1811 that. " Crossing the 
Ferry " at New York became an accomplished fact. In- 
deed, the difficulties experienced in crossing the 
North and East Rivers before horse or steam fer- 
ries were known, will never be realized by the present 
generation. They may be judged of somewhat by the fol- 
lowing extract from a letter to the writer, written by a 
gentleman who now (1871) is still living, at the age of 
eighty-eight, hale and hearty. " When a boy of fifteen," 
he writes, "I first visited New York city, in 1801. Then 




■ 




;##> 




we crossed from Brooklyn in small sail-boats — two cents 
ferriage. With ice in the river, it was sometimes ex- 
tremely perilous. To get a gig across, of course, the 
wheels must be taken off, and the horse jumped. On that 
first visit I saw the fine farms below the present City 
Hall — and one firmer was just driving out the gate with 
a fine calf to carry down town to the butcher. My father 
took me to the old Fly Market, whither he carried his 
produce." * 



* Letter from Isaac Rush-more, of Westbury, L. I., to the writer, dated No- 
vember 1th, 1871. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 355 

The first announcement of a steam ferry-boat appears 
in the Columbian newspaper of the 18th of September, 
1811, as follows: " Hoboken Steamboat. — Mr. Godwin 
respectfully acquaints the citizens of New York and the 
public at large, that he has commenced running a steam- 
boat on the Hoboken Ferry, of large and convenient size, 
and capable of affording accommodation in a very exten- 
sive degree. The boat moves with uncommon speed and 
facility, and starts from the usual ferry stairs, at the Cor- 
poration wharf, foot of Vesey Street, New York, where 
passage may be taken at any hour of the day." On the 
24th of the same month, the following editorial appears in 
the same paper : " Steam-boats are rapidly getting into the 
1 full tide of successful experiment ' in this country. Last 
week one of Colonel Stevens' ferry-boats, employed by 
Mr. Godwin, of Hoboken, was started into operation, and 
yesterday made sixteen trips back and forth, between that 
place and this city, with a probable average of one hun- 
dred passengers each trip.* Her machinery, we under- 
stand, is somewhat different from that of the large North 
River boats, and we presume she sails considerably faster 
than any other heretofore constructed in our waters." 

Even in those days it seems that there was sharp com- 
petition. Especially was this the case between Fulton, 
who represented the Paulus Hook Ferry Company, and 
Colonel John Stevens that of the Hoboken Ferry. The 
latter, it would appear, started the first passenger steam 
ferry-boat, but the former produced, although at a later 
period, a boat (or rather a double boat) which proved suc- 
cessful for the general wants and uses of such a craft. 
In July of the year following, 1812, the Columbian says, 
editorially : "The large and commodious Steam-boat which 



* Compare this statement with the fact that now two hundred thousand per- 
sons daily cross the East River, and as many more on the other side to New 
Jersey and Staten Island. 



356 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

has been for some time erecting in this city by Mr. Fulton, 
as a ferry-boat to ply between this city and the city of 
Jersey, will be in full operation on Thursday next. The 
crossing of the North River has beeen such an obstacle to 
the communication with this city, that it is a matter of 
real congratulation to the public that their difficulties are 
removed. The most timid may cross now without fear. 
As the fare of a market-wagon, loaded, will be but fifty 
cents, there is no doubt but our markets will be better 
supplied than ever they have been." " The boat impelled 
by horses, from the New (Catharine) Slip to the upper 
Brooklyn Ferry, carried at one time 543 passengers, be- 
sides some carriages and horses. And a horse-boat is to 
run soon from Grand Street Dock to Williamsburgh." 
The same authority, a short time afterwards, announces 
the successful launching of this boat, called the Williams- 
burgh, from the ship-yard of Mr. Browne. It was not, how- 
ever, until May, 1814, that steam ferry-boats superseded 
those propelled by horse-power on the Brooklyn ferry.* 
In speaking of this great improvement, the paper we have 
before quoted (the Columbian), under date of May 14th, 
says : " Brooklyn Ferry-Boat. — The Nassau, the new steam- 
boat belonging to Messrs. Cutting & Co., which commenced 
running from Beekman Slip to the lower ferry at Brook- 
lyn a few days ago, carried, in one of her first trips, 549 
(another counted 550) passengers, one wagon and a pair 
of horses, two horses and chairs, and one single horse. 
She has made a trip in four minutes, and generally takes 
from four to eight, and has crossed the river forty times 
in one day." " Yesterday (Sunday, May 10th), between 
twelve and one o'clock, Mr. Lewis Rhoda accidentally got 
hurled into the machinery of the new steam-boat Nassau, 

* The picture of the Brooklyn Ferry-house, on the opposite page, is copied 
from a colored engraving published in London, by Thomas Bakewell, in 1746, 
entitled, " A South Prospect of ye Flourishing City of New York, in ye Prov- 
ince of New York, in America." 



358 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

which cut off his left arm a little below the elbow, and 
broke his neck. He expired in about three hours."* 

In 1808, De Witt Clinton was again appointed Mayor 

of the city, which office — with the exception of only one 

year, when he was superseded by Judge Radcliffe 

in consequence of a change in party politics — he 

retained by successive annual appointments, until the year 

1815. 

" In the discharge of his' duties as Mayor," says Dr. 
David Hosack, in his address before the Literary and 
Philosophical Society, " whether presiding at the Common 
Council Board, superintending the general interests of the 
city as the President of the Board of Health, or officiating 
in the character of a judge on the bench, Mr. Clinton 
acquired the confidence, the respect, and the gratitude of 
all classes of citizens, uninfluenced by the various party 
feelings that distracted the community. As the presiding 

* This may probably be considered the first "stearn-boat accident" — now 
become so frightfully common— on record. 

The first ferry ordinance on record (1054) lays down the following rates of 
ferriage : 
The ferryman is to be allowed for a wagon, cart (either with horses or Fior. stiv. 

oxen), or a head of cattle 2 10 

For a one-horse wagon 2 

For a plough 1 

For a hog, sheep, buck, or goat 3 

For a savage, male or female 6 

For each other person 3 

Half for children under ten years. 

For a horse, or four-footed horned beast 1 10 

For a hogshead of tobacco 16 

For a tun of beer 16 

For an anchor of wine or spirits 6 

For a keg of butter, or anything else 6 

For four schepels of corn 1 

The ferryman cannot be compelled to ferry any one over before he is paid. 
The hours shall be from 7 o'clock, A. M., to 5 P. M., in winter ; but he is not to 
be obliged to ferry during a tempest, or when he cannot sail. 

The directors and members of the Council, or court messenger, and other 
persons invested with authority, or dispatched by the Executive, are to be 
exempt from toll. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 



359 



officer of the Common Council, the dignity, the ability, 
and the dispatch with which he performed the duties of 
that important office, were always the theme of eulogy ; 
and to the municipal concerns of the city he paid a 
devoted and unremitted attention." 

In this year, also, he was instrumental in obtaining 
from the State Legislature an appropriation of $100,000 
for the fortification of the city. He was likewise the 
President of the Board of Commissioners appointed to 



m 




FORT HAMILTON. 



superintend the accomplishment of those important mili- 
tary works on Staten Island and in other portions of the 
bay for the defense of the city. 

It was while Clinton was Mayor that the affair took place 
which is generally known as the " Trinity Church Riot."* 

* The following account of this riot is taken from Chief-Justice Daly's 
Bcholarly discourse, delivered before the Century Club, on the death of Guliau 
C. Verplanck. 



360 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

" In 1811, one of the graduating class of Columbia Col- 
lege, afterwards well known as Dr. J. B. Stevenson, who 
had been appointed one of the disputants in a politi- 
cal debate which was to take place at the college 
commencement, submitted, as required, what he was to say, 
to the inspection of one of the faculty, Dr. Wilson. It contain- 
ed this passage : ' Representatives ought to act according to 
the sentiments of their constituents,' which Dr. Wilson 
required him to modify by limiting it to one instance 
only. The young man remonstrated, but the doctor was 
inexorable, because, as he afterwards testified, he con- 
sidered it expedient that the young man should deliver 
correct principles, as he was to be the respondent in the 
debate. The commencement was held in Trinity Church 
before a crowded audience, and, when Stevenson came to 
reply, he omitted the qualification, and delivered the 
passage exactly as he had written it. When his name 
was called for the delivery of a diploma, he ascended the 
stage, and, as the president was in the act of handing him 
the one prepared for him, one of the professors interposed, 
and the president refused to confer the degree. The 
young man withdrew, overwhelmed by this public ex- 
posure ; but, upon returning to the body of the church, he 
was surrounded by his fellow-graduates and friends, for he 
had been an industrious and most exemplary student, and, 
at their instigation, here turned to the platform and 
demanded his diploma. One of the professors, anxious to 
accommodate matters, said to him, ' Probably you forgot;' 
but the young man promptly answered, 'I did not, but I 
would not utter what I did not believe.' The diploma 
was again refused, upon which he had the courage to turn 
to the audience and say : ' I am refused my degree, ladies 
and gentlemen, not from any literary deficiency, but 
because I refused to speak the sentiments of others as my 
own.' This at once produced a sensation, upon which 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 3d 

Hugh Maxwell, an alumnus of the college, and afterwards 
a distinguished advocate, went upon the stage and ad- 
dressed the audience in support of Stevenson, condemning 
the faculty in what they considered very bold and offen- 
sive language. At this juncture Mr. Verplanck also went 
on the platform and demanded of Dr. Mason, the provost, 
who was the ruling power in the college, why the degree 
was not conferred. Dr. Mason informed him, and Ver- 
planck answered : ' The reason, sir, is not satisfactory ; 
Mr. Maxwell must be sustained.' The audience now 
became greatly excited in favor of Stevenson, and Ver- 
planck, turning towards them, moved a vote of thanks to 
Mr. Maxwell ' for his zealous and honorable defense of an 
injured man,' a proposition which the graduating class 
received with three cheers, followed by three groans for 
the provost. Verplanck's manner in this scene, as subse- 
quently described by Dr. Mason, ' was loud and rude, with 
an air of consequence and disdain, calculated to aid and 
increase the disturbance,' and, according to the doctor's 
account, he ' appeared as if erecting himself into a tribunal 
to judge above the heads of the faculty,' a statement in 
which others who were present did not concur. Old as 
well as young men now took as active a part as Verplanck 
or Maxwell ; and when Dr. Mason, in his official character 
as provost, came forward to restore order, he was, to 
employ his own words, when examined as a witness, re- 
ceived with a ' hiss that, in manner and quality, would not 
disgrace a congregation of snakes upon Snake Hill in New 
Jersey.' He was compelled to retire, the police were 
brought in, and the commencement came to an end in 
confusion and disorder. 

" From the college and the church the affair passed 
into the newspapers. The faculty published in the daily 
journals a lengthy vindication of their course, and were 
answered by a rejoinder from the graduating class, and by 

46 



362 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

replies from others who were present. A complaint was 
made to the grand jury, and seven of the principal actors, 
— Stevenson, Verplanck, and Maxwell being included,— 
were indicted ; and, at the August term of the Court of 
Sessions, or, as it was then popularly called, the Mayor's 
Court, they were arraigned and put upon their trial for 
the criminal offense of creating or assisting in a riot. De 
Witt Clinton, being then Mayor of the city, presided ; and 
from the unusual circumstance of such an occurrence in a 
church upon such an occasion, and the fact that all who 
were indicted were members of leading families of the 
city, the trial excited the deepest interest. Verplanck 
and Maxwell defended themselves, and three of the most 
eminent counsel of that day, David B. 0<2;den, Josiah 0. 
Hoffman, and Peter A. Jay, appeared for the other 
defendants. The principal members of the faculty were 
examined as witnesses, conspicuous among whom was 
Dr. Mason, the provost of the college, in the earnestness 
and zeal which he displayed to secure a conviction. He 
was at the time the most eloquent preacher in the city, or, 
indeed, in the country, and in giving his testimony brought 
all the weight of his popularity and his intellectual gifts 
to bear with great effect against the accused. 

" Verplanck addressed the jury upon his own behalf. He 
declared, which was no doubt the truth, that he was moved 
to do what he did solely from his sense of the injustice of 
the college authorities, in publicly refusing to confer the 
degree because the young man would not utter their 
political sentiments. ' There was,' he said, ' gentlemen 
of the jury, a lofty spirit of gallantry about the conduct 
of Mr. Maxwell, with which, at the time, I could not but 
sympathize, and which now I cannot but admire. He was 
bold in the cause of friendship and of character. I ap- 
proved of his behavior, and I am proud that I did so ;' and 
then gratified his own feelings, at least, by telling the jury 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. S63 

that Dr. Mason was 'a man towering in the proud con- 
sciousness of intellectual strength, little accustomed to 
yield, or even to listen to the opinions of others, that he 
appeared as a witness pouring forth upon him and Max- 
well all the bitterness of his rancor and the overboiling of 
his contempt ; throwing off the priest and the gentleman 
and assuming the buffoon ; showering upon them his deli- 
cate irony, his choice simile of the congregation of snakes, 
and all the other savory flowers of rhetoric, in which he 
was so fertile, and had poured forth in such abundance/ 
and, appealing to the jury, asked, ' What credit will you 
give to a witness, inflamed by passion, smarting with 
wounded pride, and mortified self-confidence V 

" It was very doubtful whether the offense, which the 
law denominates a riot, had been proved, or in fact com- 
mitted — whether there was any thing more than a strong 
expression of disapprobation on the part of the audience, 
an occurrence more or less incident to the nature of public 
assemblages, which became a scene of disorder from the 
faculty persisting in refusing to give the young man his 
diploma. No actual violence on the part of any of the 
defendants was proved, nor was what occurred of a nature 
to create public terror, a necessary ingredient in the crime 
of riot. There was probably nothing more than a breach 
of the peace. 

" It was pertinently suggested by Mr. Jay, that, if the 
college permitted the students to discuss a political ques- 
tion, as a part of the public exercises at a commencement, 
they should have been allowed the free exercise of their 
own views in the discussion of it, and that the supervision 
of their remarks should have been confined to the correc- 
tion merely of literary defects ; that otherwise there was 
no freedom in the debate, but the students were simply 
mouth-pieces to utter the political views and sentiments 
of the professors ; that there was nothing in the statutes 



364 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

of the college which imposed the penalty of a refusal of a 
degree if a student would not incorporate in his speech 
what a professor directed him to put in ; that a resolution 
had been inserted in the minutes of 1796, subjecting the 
compositions of the students to the inspection of the 
faculty, and, if any such penalty as the deprivation of a 
degree were attached, the students were left in ignorance 
of it, as there was nothing of the kind in the college 
statutes ; and he argued that it was not the young men 
upon trial, but the faculty, who were responsible for the 
disturbance ; that they had, perhaps, without sufficient 
reflection, fallen into an error, which their pride prevented 
them afterwards from admitting. They had committed a 
palpable act of injustice, and it was their unwillingness 
to recede from it, and their determination to persist in it, 
that had exasperated the audience. They, consequently, 
were the real authors of the riot, if there was one ; but he 
insisted, as did the other counsel for the defense, that, in 
the sense of the law, there had been no riot. 

" Clinton, however, had no misgivings in respect to 
the law. He charged the jury that the offense had been 
committed, that all the defendants were guilty of it, and 
got rid of the definition of a riot by Hawkins, a learned 
elementary authority upon the criminal law, by declaring 
it to be 'undoubtedly bad.' He commented upon the con- 
duct of the defendants with great severity, and was espe- 
cially severe upon Verplanck. It was difficult, he said, to 
speak of his conduct in terms sufficiently strong ; that he 
was one of the principal ringleaders ' in the scene of dis- 
order and disgrace,' and that in his reply to the provost, 
and in his moving a vote of thanks to Maxwell, he evinced 
' a matchless insolence.' He told the jury that they were 
bound ' by every consideration arising out of the public 
peace and the public morals, and by their regard for an 
institution venerable for its antiquity, to bring in all the 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. S65 

defendants guilty ; ' that he had no hesitation in declaring 
that the disturbance was ' the most disgraceful, the most 
unprecedented, the most unjustifiable, and the most outra- 
geous, that had ever come to the knowledge of the court.' 
" Under this charge the jury found the defendants 
guilty. Verplanck and Maxwell were fined two hundred 
dollars each, which was imposed, says Renwick, Clinton's 
biographer, in an address conveying a severe, merited, 
and pointed reprimand. They were required, in addition, 
to procure sureties for their future good behavior ; and the 
same authority states that Clinton hesitated for some time 
whether he was not called upon, by a regard for justice, 
to inflict also the disgrace of imprisonment."* 

But before New York city was to attain to her present 
high position, she was destined to pass through another 

* " But the result of the prosecution did not produce the effect which its 
promoters anticipated. Public feeling, especially in the Democratic party, was 
with the defendants, and the course of Clinton, upon the trial, greatly aug- 
mented the hostility of the Madisonian Democrats to him. We were then on 
the eve of a war with England. The measures of Madison had not been suffi- 
ciently energetic to satisfy the more ardent of the Democrats ; and Clinton, 
relying upon a diversion of the dissatisfied portion of that party in his favor, 
had taken the field as a candidate for the Presidency against Madison, and at 
this very time was intriguing to secure the support of the Federalists. By the 
Democrats his course upon the trial was attributed to a desire to ingratiate him- 
self with the Federal party, and matters subsequently brought to light disclose 
that this belief was not wholly without foundation. Dr. Mason, a Federalist 
of the straitest sect, either shortly before or about the time of the trial, had 
acted as the private friend of Clinton in bringing about an interview between 
him and John Jay, Rufus King, and Gouverneur Morris, three of the principal 
Federal leaders, which failed of its object through John Jay's disgust at hear- 
ing Clinton say that he had never sympathized with the Democrats, but had 
always been in favor of the policy of Washington and Adams' administrations 
— an extraordinary statement from the man whose denunciation of the Federal 
leaders as ' men who had rather reign in hell than serve in heaven,' had rung 
through every part of the Union. It was, therefore, not without some ground 
that he was exposed to the suspicion of having been actuated upon this trial 
by a desire to do something that would gratify the Federalists, and especially 
his negotiator with them, a man of imperious temper and despotic will, who 
had set his heart upon the success of this prosecution." — Chief-Justice Daly's 
Discourse. 



366 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

period of darkness and depression — the War of 1812 — a 
period, moreover, which was to be rendered additionally 
trying by the crippling of its resources by the terrible con- 
flagration of 1811. The late Hon. G. P. Disosway, who, 
with a few yet living, passed through this fiery ordeal, 
gives his personal reminiscences of this fire as follows : 

" An extensive fire broke out in Chatham Street, near Duane, on Sunday 
morning, May 19th, 1811, raging furiously several hours. A brisk north-east 
wind was blowing at the moment, and the flames, spreading with great rapid- 
ity, for some time baffled all the exertions of the firemen and citizens. Between 
eighty and one hundred buildings, on both sides of Chatham Street, were con- 
sumed in a few hours. 

" We well remember this conflagration. The writer was then a Sabbath- 
school boy, and a teacher in a public school-room near by, at the corner of Tryon 
Row. The school was dismissed, and, as usual, proceeded to old John Street 
Church, thick showers of light, burning shingles and cinders falling all over 
the streets. That was the day of shingle roof's. When the teachers and schol- 
ars, their number very large, reached the church, the venerable Bishop McKen- 
dall occupied the pulpit, and seeing the immense clouds of dark smoke and liv- 
ing embers enveloping that section of the city, he advised the men ' to go to 
the fire and help in its extinguishment, and he would preach to the women and 
children.' This advice was followed. 

" By this time the scene had become very exciting, impressive, and even 
fearful. We have not forgotten it, and never will. The wind had increased to 
a gale, and far and wide and high flew the blazing flakes in whirling eddies, 
throwing burning destruction wherever they lit or fell. 

" The lofty spires near by of the ' Brick Meeting,' ' St. Paul's,' and ' St. 
George's Chapel,' enveloped in the rapidly passing embers, soon became the espe- 
cial objects of watchfulness and anxiety. Thousands of uplifted eyes, and, we 
doubt not, prayers, were directed towards these holy tabernacles, now threatened 
with speedy destruction. And there was cause for fear. Near the ball at the top 
of the ' Brick Church,' a blazing spot was seen outside, and apparently not larger 
than a man's head. Instantly a thrill of fear evidently ran through the bosoms 
of the thousands crowding the Park and the wide area of Chatham Street. 
They feared the safety of an old and loved temple of the Lord, and they feared, 
also, if the spire was once in flames, with the increasing gale, what would be 
the terrible consequence on the lower part of the city. 

'"What can we do?' was the universal question — ' What in the world can 
be done ? ' was in everybody's mouth. The kindling spot could not be reached 
from the inside of the tall steeple, nor by ladders outside ; neither could any 
fire-engine, however powerful, force the water to that lofty height. With the 
deepest anxiety, fear, and trembling, all faces were turned in that direction. At 
this moment of alarm and dread, a sailor appeared on the roof of the church, 
and very soon was seen climbing up the steeple, hand over hand, by the light- 
ning-rod ! yes, by the rusty, slender iron ! Of course, the excitement now 
became most intense ; and the perilous undertaking of the daring man was 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. ^67 

watched every moment, as lie slowly, step by step, grasp after grasp, literally 
crawled upward, by means of bis slim conductor. Many fears were expressed 
among tbe immense crowd, watching every inch of his ascent, for there was no 
resting-place for bands and feet, and be must hold on, or fall and perish ; and 
should be succeed in reaching the burning spot, how could he possibly extin- 
guish it, as water, neither by hose nor bucket, could be sent to his assistance ? 
' But where tbere is a will, there is a way,' says an old maxim, and it was at 
this crisis he reached the kindling spot, and, firmly grasping the lightning-rod 
in one hand, with the other he removed his tarpaulin hat from his head, and 
with it literally, blow after blow, thick, strong, and unceasing, extinguished or 
beat out the fire ! Shouts of joy and thanks greeted the noble fellow as he 
slowly and safely descended to the earth again.* The ' Old Brick ' was thus 
preserved from the great conflagration of tbat Sunday morning. Our hero 
quickly disappeared in the crowd, and, it was said, immediately sailed abroad, 
with the favorable wind then blowing. A reward was offered for the person 
who performed this daring, generous act ; but it is said tbat some impostor 
passed himself off for the real hero, and obtained the promised amount. 

" The cupola of the ' Old Jail,' which stood on the spot now occupied by the 
' Hall of Records,' also took fire. Tins was extinguished through the exertions 
of a prisoner ' on the limits.' This was tbe famous, generous institution where 
unfortunate debtors formerly were confined and barred in with grated doors 
and iron bolts, deprived of liberty, and without tools, books, paper, or pen, 
expected to pay their debts. It was a kind of ' Calcutta Black-Hole,' and the 
inmates having no yard-room, the prisoners frequented the top of the building 
for open-air exercise. Here they might be seen every hour of the day. Gen- 
erally discovering fires in the city, they gave the first alarm, by ringing the 
' Jail-Bell.' This became a sure signal of a conflagration, and on this occasion 
they saved the legal pest-house from quick destruction. The Corporation 
rewarded the debtor who fortunately extinguished the threatened cupola. 

" If the building had been destroyed and its inmates only saved, there 
would not have been much public regret, for it bad been a sort of ' Calcutta 
Black-Hole ' to American prisoners of war during tbe Revolution. After Gen- 
eral Washington's success, during 1777, in New Jersey, a portion of these poor 
prisoners were exchanged ; but many of them, exhausted by their confinement, 
before reaching the vessels for their embarkation home, fell dead in the 
streets These are some of the historical reminiscences of the ' Old Debtors' 
Prison,' which so narrowly escaped burning m the great fire of May, 1811." 

Scarcely had the citizens of New York recovered from 
the disheartening effects of this fire, when, on the 20th of 
June, 1812, the news was received in the city of 
President Madison's declaration of war against 
Great Britain, issued a few days previous. A meeting 
was immediately called at noon of the same day, in the 

* This sailor was the father of the late Rev. Dr. Hague, Pastor of the Baptist Church, 
corner of Thirty-first Street and Madison Avenue.— Letter from Thomas Hays to the Author. 



368 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

park, at which the citizens solemnly pledged themselves to 
give the Government their undivided support. Clinton, 
a l S0; — although, as chief magistrate of the city, he could 
with perfect propriety have pleaded his official duties as 
an excuse for not taking an active part, — hastened to offer 
to the commander-in-chief his personal services for active 
operations in the field. These were preferred in a letter 
addressed to Governor Tompkins, by their mutual friend, 
Thomas Addis Emmet. But the patriotism of Mr. Clinton 
did not stop here. The declaration of war had found us 
as a nation wholly unprepared for war. The treasury 
was empty, and its credit, at that time, impaired. It was, 
accordingly, soon perceived that, if the city of New York 
was to be defended, the funds for that purpose must be 
provided by her own citizens. At this crisis, Mr. Clinton 
suggested to the Common Council that they should borrow 
the necessary funds on the credit of the city, and loan the 
amount thus raised to the United States. The plan was 
approved. An impressive address, drafted by Mr. Clinton, 
was made to our citizens, and a million of dollars — at that 
time a large sum to be secured in this manner — was raised 
by subscription for the defense of the city. 

Nor was it only in repelling outside foes that the 

virtues of Clinton's character were exhibited. His 

patriotism, his unshaken firmness in supporting 

the laws and in preserving the peace of the community, 

were at this time most conspicuous. 

A state of war in every country produces a body of 
men who, under various specious pretexes, excite to acts 
of riot and disorder, which they turn to the gratifica- 
tion of their private and personal resentments, or their 
own malignant passions.* Disgraceful scenes of lawless 
violence and of bloodshed had recently occurred in a 

* Vide, for example, the " Draft Riot" in New York in lSo'o. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 369 

sister city, and gave fearful omeu of what might likewise 
be expected in New York, unless restrained by the strong 
arm of the law. Mr. Clinton foresaw the crisis, and his 
correct and intrepid spirit prepared for the emergency. 
In an address to the Grand Jury, he alluded to the riotous 
scenes in Baltimore, and, with a view to prevent a repe- 
tition of similar occurrences in New York, he digested 
and prepared a system of police regulations for the pre- 
servation of the peace of the city, which was adopted by 
the Common Council. The result was that the city re- 
mained tranquil and undisturbed by tumult of any sort. 
« The character of Mr. Clinton," says Dr. Hosack, in 
alluding to this circumstance, " was an assurance to the 
community that these regulations would not remain a 
dead letter, but be faithfully and promptly executed. His 
well known firmness gave tranquillity to our city ; the 
vicious were awed ; the virtuous, under his auspices, felt 
additional confidence." 

But, as a city, New York did well. Her conduct, 
in view of the severe blow which it was perceived would 
at once be given by the war to the prosperity of New 
York, was no slight proof of patriotism ; and many who 
at the beginning of the war were rich, found themselves, 
when the treaty of peace was signed on the 24th of 
December, 1814, ruined. The condition in which ^ 
New York was at the close of the war, as well as 
the extravagant demonstration of joy with which the 
news of the termination of hostilities was received, is thus 
graphically described by the late Francis Wayland, who 
was an eye-witness of the scene : 

" It so chanced that, at the close of the last war with 
Great Britain, I was temporarily a resident of the city of 
New York. The prospects of the nation were shrouded 
in gloom. We had been, for two or three years, at war 
with the mightiest nation on earth, and as she had now 



47 



370 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

concluded a peace with the continent of Europe, we were 
obliged to cope with her single-handed. Our harbors were 
blockaded, communications coastwise between our ports 
were cut off; our ships were rotting in every creek and cove 
where they could find a place of security ; our immense 
annual products were mouldering in our warehouses ; the 
sources of profitable labor were dryed up ; our currency 
was reduced to irredeemable paper ; the extreme portions 
of our country were becoming hostile to each other ; and 
differences of political opinion were embittering the peace 
of every household ; the credit of the Government was 
exhausted ; no one could predict when the contest would 
terminate, or discern the means by which it could much 
longer be protracted.* 

* The following lines, entitled " Hard Times," published in New York 
city at the close of the War of 1812, seem, with one or two exceptions, 
written for the present day. History has repeated itself, except in the case of 
the geese and turkeys ! Would that a " good fat goose " could now be bought 
for five shillings ! 

" No business stirring, all things at a stand, 

People complain they have no cash in hand. 

Dull times ' re-echoes now from every quarter, 

Even from father to the son and daughter. 

Merchants cry out no money to be had, 

Grocers say the times are very bad ; 

Mechanics work, but they can get no pay, 

Beaux dress genteel, and ladies too are gay. 

Cash very scarce, dancing twice a week — 

Business dull — amusement still we seek. 

Some live awhile, and then, perhaps, they fail. 

While many run in debt and go to jail. 

The females must have ribbons, gauze, and lace, 

And paint besides, to smooth a wrinkled face ; 

The beaux will dress, go to the ball and play, 

Sit up all night and lay in bed all day, 

Brush up an empty pate, look smart and prim, 

Follow each trifling fashion or odd whim. 

Five shillings will buy a good fat goose, 

While turkeys, too, are offered fit for use. 

Are those bad times when persons will profess 

To follow fashions and delight in dress ? 

No ! times are good, but people are to blamp, 

Who spend too much, and justly merit shame." 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 371 

" It happened that, on a Sunday afternoon, in February, 
1815, a ship was discerned in the offing, which was sup- 
posed to be a cartel, bringing home our Commis- ^^ 
sioners at Ghent, from their unsuccessful mission. 
The sun had set gloomily before any intelligence had reached 
the city. Expectation became painfully intense, as the 
hours of darkness drew on. At length, a boat reached the 
wharf, announcing the fact that a treaty of peace had been 
signed, and was waiting for nothing but the action of our 
Government to become a law. The men, on whose ears 
these words first fell, rushed in breathless haste into the 
city, to repeat them to their friends, shouting as they ran 
through the streets, 'Peace! Peace! PEACE!' Every 
one who heard the sound repeated it. From house to 
house, from street to street, the news spread with electric 
rapidity. The whole city was in commotion. Men bear- 
ing lighted torches, were flying to and fro, shouting like 
madmen, ' Peace ! PEACE !' When the rapture had par- 
tially subsided, one idea occupied every mind. But few 
men slept that night. In groups they were gathered in 
the streets, and by the fireside, beguiling the hours of 
midnight by reminding each other that the agony of war 
was over, and that a worn-out and distracted country was 
about to enter again upon its wonted career of prosperity."* 

* At the time that the news of peace was received, S. G. Goodrich (" Peter 
Parley ") happened to be in the city. Speaking of the joyful effect produced, he 
says : " I had gone in the evening to a concert at the City Hotel. While listen- 
ing to the music, the door of the concert-room was thrown open, and in rushed 
a man breathless with excitement. He mounted on a table, and swinging a 
white handkerchief aloft, cried out, 'Peace! Peace! Peace!!' The music 
ceased ; the hall was speedily vacated. I rushed into the street, and oh, what 
a scene ! In a few minutes, thousands and tens of thousands of people were 
marching about with candles, lamps, torches— making the jubilant street ap- 
pear like a gay and gorgeous procession. The whole night Broadway sang its 
song of peace. We were all Democrats, all Federalists ! Old enemies rushed 
into each other's arms ; every house was in a revel ; every heart seemed 
melted by a joy which banished all evil thought and feeling. On Monday 
morning, I set out for Connecticut. All along the road, the people saluted us 



372 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

The winter of 1817 was unusually severe. As late 

as the 15th of February the Hudson was frozen over from 

the city to the New Jersey side, so that people 

crossed on the ice from shore to shore. " Several 

gentlemen," records the Evening Post for February, " set 

out for a sleigh-ride on the ice from Flushing to Riker's 

Island, where they arrived in safety. This was the first 

sleigh that was ever known to visit the island, and, as it 

passed down the bay, it drew forth numbers of people on 

the shore to view so hino-ular an event." The suc- 

18 18. 

ceeding year, also, witnessed the same intensity of 
cold, Long Island Sound being entirely closed by ice 
between Cold Spring and the Connecticut shore. The 
Hudson likewise was again frozen so firmly that heavy 
teams crossed to the Jersey side. Many persons, like 
the Canadians, when the ice-pont forms between Quebec 
and Point Levi, sought to make gain out of this unusual 
circumstance. Accordingly, they erected tents on the ice 
and sold in them liquor, roasted clams, and oysters. An 
attempt was also made to roast an ox, but the experiment 
failed, on account of the ice becoming weak near the fur- 
naces where the cooking was done.* 

with swinging of hats and cries of rejoicing. At one place, in rather a lone- 
some part of the road, a schoolmaster came out, with the whole school at his 
heels, to ask us if the news was true. We told him it was ; whereupon he 
tied his bandanna pocket handkerchief to a broom, swung it aloft, and the 
whole school hosannaed, ' Peace ! Peace ! ' " 

* An amusing anecdote was told at this time of a certain Jeremiah But- 
man, around whose tent the ice had become quite thin, from the effects of the 
stove and several days of mild weather. One of his customers, happening to 
step upon a weak spot outside of his tent, broke through, and was struggling 
in the water, when a friend put his head inside of Butman's tent, saying, 
" Jerry, there is a man gone down your cellar !" " Is it so '!" said Jerry. " Then 
it is about time for me to leave these premises." The man, however, was 
finally extricated, the tent struck, and all were safely taken to the land on 
a sled. 

On account of the severe winter, provisions were considered very dear. At 
the present day, however, the prices that then ruled would be considered 




MONUMENT TO GENERAL MONTGOMERY. 



HISTORY OF NEW YOEK CITY. 373 

In the same year (1818) the Legislature of New York 
— De Witt Clinton, Governor — ordered the remains of 
General Montgomery to be removed from Canada to New 
York. This was in accordance with the wishes of the 
Continental Congress, which, in 1776, had voted the beau- 
tiful cenotaph to his memory that now stands in the front 
wall of St. Paul's Church, in Broadway. When the funeral 
cortege reached Whitehall, New York, the fleet stationed 
there received them with appropriate honors ; and on the 
4th of July they arrived in Albany. After lying in state in 
that city over Sunday, the remains were taken to New York, 
and on Wednesday deposited, with military honors, in their 
final resting-place at St. Paul's. Governor Clinton, with 
that delicacy for which he was always remarkable, had 
informed Mrs. Montgomery when the steamer Richmond, 
with the body of her husband, would pass her mansion on 
the North River. At her own request, she stood alone on 
the portico at the moment that the boat passed. It was 
now forty years since she had parted from her husband, 
and they had been married only two years ; yet she had 
remained as faithful to the memory of her " soldier," as 
she always called him, as if alive. The steam-boat halted 
before the mansion; the band played the " Dead March;" 
a salute was fired ; and the ashes of the venerated hero 
and the departed husband passed on. The attendants of 
the Spartan widow now appeared, but, overcome by the 



remarkably cheap. The following are the quotations taken from the Colum- 
bian of December 5th, 1818 : 

Best beef, per lb 12^c. Butter, fresh 33c. 

" cwt $7tol2 " In firkins 23c. to 26c. 

Pork, per lb 10c. Potatoes, per barrel 56c. 

" " cwt $8. Turnips, " " 31c. 

Veal, per lb. 10c. Cabbages, per 1,000 .. $6 to $7 

Mutton, per lb 8c. Wood, oak, per load $2 25c. 

Turkeys, apiece (good) $1 56c. " Walnut " $3 50c. 

Fowls, per pair 56c. " Pine " $1 62^c. 

Geese, per piece 50c. to 56c. 



374 H STORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

tender emotions of the moment, she had swooned and 
fallen to the floor.* 

The gallant dead, though surrounded by the turmoil 
of a busy city, is still permitted to rest beneath the turf 
made radiant by the unsullied blossoms of early spring. 
The brave Wolfe, who fell on nearly the same spot sixteen 
years previous, sleeps within the splendid mausoleum of 
Westminster Abbey. But as we stand over the simple 
grave of Montgomery, we recall the quaint and beautiful 
language of Osborne : " He that lieth under the herse of 
heavenne is convertible into sweet herbs and flowers, that 
maye rest in bosoms that wolde shrink from the ugly bugs 
which may be found crawling in the magnificent tombs 
of Heny the VII."t 

On the 22d of February, 1819, a grand ball was given 
by the Fourteenth Regiment,^ in honor of General Andrew 

* Janet Livingston, the sister of the distinguished Chancellor Livingston, 
and the wife of General Richard Montgomery, met the latter when he was a 
Captain in the British army, on his way to a distant frontier post. The meet- 
ing left mutual tender impressions. Returning to England soon after, Mont- 
gomery disposed of his commission, and, emigrating to New York, married the 
object of his attachment. But their visions of anticipated happiness upon a 
farm at Rhinebeck were soon ended. He was called upon to serve as one of 
the eight brigadier-generals in the Continental army. He accepted sadly, 
declaring that "the will of an oppressed people, compelled to choose between 
liberty and slavery, must be obeyed." His excellent wife made no opposition ; 
and, accompanying him as far as Saratoga, received his last assurance : " You 
shall never have cause to blush for your Montgomery." Nor did she, for he 
fell bravely at Quebec. Having reduced St. Jobn's, Chambly, and Montreal, he 
effected a junction with Arnold before the walls of Quebec, where he was shot 
through both his thighs and head, while leading his men, on the 31st of Decem- 
ber, 1775. In person, General Montgomery was tall, graceful, and of manly 
address. At the time of his death he was only thirty-nine years of age. 

•f For the inscription on the cenotaph, and also for a letter from General 
Montgomery, explaining the reason for his coming to America, — which has 
always been involved in obscurity — see Appendix, No III. 

1 The Fourteenth (now the Seventh) Regiment — also known as the Govern- 
or's Guards, from the fact that it had once been detailed by Governor Daniel D. 
Tompkins (at the time a Major-General in the Army of the United States) as 
his special body guard — was distinguished for its splendid discipline and its 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 375 

Jackson, at the City Hotel. The ball was attended by the 
General in person, and was far ahead, in elegance and 
brilliancy, of anything before known in the city 
— so much so, indeed, as to call forth several 
squibs and criticisms from " Croaker]' the celebrated 
" quiz" and satirist of that day.* 

The winter of 1S20-'21, like that of 1817-18, was 
one of remarkable severity. Indeed, for many years pre- 
vious, such intense and steady cold weather had not 

, 18 20. 

been known. A newspaper of that day, speaking 

of this, says : " The weather, after twenty-one 
days of steady cold, began to moderate on Saturday after- 
noon (the 20th). On Saturday morning, Long Island 
Sound was crossed upon the ice from Sand's Point to the 
opposite shore, distance eight miles. The price of oak 
wood was up to five dollars a load, Saturday."! Three 
days afterwards the same paper states : " The cold still 
continues intense ; both the North and East Rivers were 
crossed on the ice, and the bay is nearly filled with float- 
ing ice, which will probably be closed by another cold 
night, and our harbor shut up for the first time in forty 
years." On the next day : " The North River continues 
to be crossed with safety on the ice ; the distance between 
the two shores has been measured, and found to be a mile 
from Cortlandt Street to Powle's Hook (Paulus Hook, 
Jersey City). The Hoboken ferry-boat, with fifty-seven 
persons and twenty-three horses on board, drifted, on 

brilliant uniforms — blue coats, white pantaloons, and tall, waving feathers — 
which exceeded in richness and elegance all others in the city. " With its gal- 
lant cavalier, Colonel James B. Murray, at its head, it was the pride and delight 
of the beauty and fashion of the city; while it was equally distinguished, on 
the march in Broadway, in the walks of fashion, and in the gayeties of the ball- 
room." — Recollections of the Seventh Regiment, by Asher Taylor 

* Fitz Greene ITalleck. 

f American, January 22d, 1821. 



376 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Wednesday evening, below Governor's Island, and was 
inclosed in the ice, where she now remains. The people 
suffered much from the cold during the night, although 
none were frozen." The same paper, also, of the 27th of 
January, says : " More than a thousand persons crossed 
the North River on the ice ; produce, of every kind, was 
taken over in sleds ; and hundreds were seen skating in 
the middle of the river. There came up, also, yesterday, 
from Staten Island on the ice, a boat and seven men, viz., 
John Vanderbilt, A. Laurence, William Drake, Lewis 
Farnham, Robert Davis, and Mr. Wainwright. The mail 
for Staten Island was yesterday taken down over the ice 
by Daniel Simonson and Joseph Seguine. Many persons 
at the same time walked from Long Island to Staten Isl- 
and, — such a circumstance has not been witnessed before 
since the year 1780, when heavy ordnance were conveyed 
on the ice from New York to Staten Island." 

This long and severe cold weather caused much suf- 
fering among the poor, and led to the establishment of 
soup-houses, through the generosity of many of the butch- 
ers. Collections were also taken up in the churches for 
the benefit of the suffering, one of which is noticed in a 
newspaper as amounting to $2,106.46.* 

* The Market Book, by Thomas F. Devoe. 



CHAPTER V. 

In the successive years of its existence, the City of New 
York had been visited by war and fire and famine, and 
now the scourge of pestilence was again to be added. In 
1819 ; the city was visited by yellow-fever, which igi9< 
shortly disappeared, only to return with increased 
violence in the fall of 1822. Hardie, in his account 
of the fever at this time, says : " Saturday, the 24th of 
August, our city presented the appearance of a town 
besieged. From daybreak till night one line of carts, con- 
taining boxes, merchandise, and effects, were seen moving 
towards ' Greenwich Village ' and the upper parts of the 
city. Carriages and hacks, wagons and horsemen, were 
scouring the streets and filling the roads ; persons, with 
anxiety strongly marked on their countenances, and with 
hurried gait, were hustling through the streets. Tempo- 
rary stores and offices were erecting, and even on the 
ensuing day (Sunday) carts were in motion, and the saw 
and hammer busily at work. Within a few days there- 
after, the custom-house, the post-office, the banks, the in- 
surance-offices, and the printers of newspapers located 
themselves in the village, or in the upper part of Broad- 
way, where they were free from the impending danger ; 
and these places almost instantaneously became the seat 
of the immense business usually carried on in the great 

48 



378 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

metropolis." * " You cannot conceive," writes Colonel 
William L. Stone, at that time editor of the Commercial 
Advertiser, under date of September 26th, 1822, to 
his wife, " the distressing situation we are in, and 
the whole town. The fever is worse every hour. I saw 
the hearse pass the office an hour ago with seven sick in 
it. Thus the dead are carried to the grave, and the sick 
out of town — to die — on the same melancholy-looking 
carriages." And again, about a month after, he also 
writes, under date of October 10th, as follows : " As 
to the fever, I cannot say that it is any better. On the 
contrary, it rages sadly, and grows worse every hour. 
There are many sick and dying, especially in the lower 
parts of the city, who would not move, and the physicians 
will not visit them. I know several who have died with- 
out a physician. Old Mr. Taylor, for instance (Soap and 
Candles, Maiden Lane), would not move, and is now in 
his grave." On the 19th of the same month, also, he 
writes again to his wife : " I believe I told you in my last 
letter that I did not believe the fever was any better. 
The result has proved the correctness of what I said. The 
disease rages with fresh violence, as you will perceive by 
the reports. When it will please Heaven to cause it to 
abate, is more than mortal can tell. A severe, nipping 
frost, I have no doubt, will check it, and I yet hope that 
we shall be able to remove back by the first of next 



* The visits of yellow-fever in 1798, 1799, 1803, and 1805, tended much to 
increase the formation of a village near the " Spring Street Market," and one, 
also, near the " State Prison ; " but the " fever of 1822 " built up many streets, 
with numerous wooden buildings, for the uses of the merchants, banks (from 
which Bank Street took its name), offices, &c. ; and the celerity of putting up 
those buildings is better told by the Rev. Mr. Marcellus, who informed me that 
" he saw corn growing on the present corner of Hammond and Fourth Streets, 
on a Saturday morning, and, on the following Monday, ' Sykes & Niblo ' had 
a house erected capable of accommodating three hundred boarders." Even the 
Brooklyn ferry-boats ran up here daily. — Ihe Market Book, by Thomas F. De- 
voe. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 379 

month." The cold weather of 1822 and 1823, however, did 
not, as the writer hoped, check the disease ; and dur- 
ing the succeeding summer its ravages became 

1 823 

so frightful, that all who could, fled the city. 
Business was entirely suspended, and the place presented 
the appearance literally of a deserted city — with no sounds 
except the rumbling of the hearses, as, at the dead of 
night, they passed through the streets to collect the 
tribute of the grave. By the 2d of November, however, 
the fever had disappeared ; the inhabitants again returned 
to their homes ; the bank sand custom-house, which had 
been removed, during the fever, to Greenwich Village, on 
the outskirts of the town, moved back to their customary 
places ; and business and social intercourse once more 
flowed in their accustomed channels. 

The two following years were to witness two august 
celebrations in New York. The first was in the summer 
of 1824, on the occasion of the visit of General 

1824. 

Lafayette to America, in his eighty-sixth year ; 
and the second was in honor of the completion of the 
Erie Canal, in 1825, by which the waters of Lake Erie 
were connected with those of the Atlantic. 

On Sunday, the 15th of August, General Lafayette, 
accompanied by his son, George Washington Lafayette, 
and his secretary, Auguste Le Vasseur, arrived in New 
York bay in the ship Cadmus. As the ship passed through 
the Narrows a salute was fired from Fort Lafayette, and 
the national flag was immediately hoisted, and displayed 
during the day on all the public buildings in the city. On 
landing at Staten Island, he was conducted to the seat of 
Daniel D. Tompkins, the Vice-President of the United 
States, where he spent the day receiving calls. 

Lafa} 7 ette had no idea, nor even a suspicion, of the wel- 
come that awaited him on this side of the Atlantic. At 



380 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

least such is the inference from an incident told by one of 
the actors in it to Captain Mayne Reid, by whom, in turn, 
it was narrated to the author. 

Lafayette had left France, after nearly half a century's 
absence from the United States, and without any intima- 
tion that he was to have any public reception in America. 
The gentleman who gave the relation to Captain Reid — 
a well-known Boston merchant — chanced to be his fellow- 
passenger on the voyage, which was made in a Havre 
packet-ship.* 

While crossing the Atlantic, this gentleman had many 
opportunities of conversing with the French marquis and 
his son Washington. All knew that our old ally, though a 
nobleman, was not rich ; and in his conversations with his 
fellow-passengers he showed himself very solicitous as to 
his pecuniary means, making many inquiries about the 
prices of living and traveling in America, and seemed 
very anxious on this account, as if fearing that his purse 
might not be sufficient for a very extended tour of travel 
through the United States. Indeed, the Americans who 
were aboard the packet, having been long absent from 
their country, had themselves no idea of the grand honors 
in store for their distinguished fellow-passenger. The gen- 
tleman admitted that he himself had no conception of what 
was to happen, and did occur, on this side. Feeling an 
interest in Lafayette, he had invited him and his son, in 
the event of their visiting Boston, to make his house their 
home. 

In due time the French packet came in sight of the 
American coast, and lay to at Sandy Hook, waiting for a 

* The Congress of the United States, some months before, upon learning 
that it was the intention of Lafayette to visit this country, had unanimously 
passed a resolution inviting him to our shores, and directed that a national 
ship should be held in readiness for his conveyance whenever it would suit his 
convenience to embark. This honor, however, the marquis declined, and took 
passage from Havre for New York on the 13th of July, 1824. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 381 

favorable wind to enter the Bay of New York. Near the 
Narrows she was boarded by a row-boat, in which were 
two gentlemen in plain civilian dress ; who, after holding 
a private conference with the captain, again re-entered 
their boat and put off. No one aboard the packet, except 
the skipper himself, knew to what the conference related. 

After passing through the Narrows, and coming along- 
side of Staten Island, the French ship cast anchor. This 
was a surprise to the passengers, who supposed they were 
going directly to the city. They were consequently 
chagrined at being thus delayed after their long sea- 
voyage ; and many were heard to murmur at it. While in 
this mood, they observed a long line of vessels coming down 
the bay. There were steam-boats, and sailing craft of all 
kinds, forming a considerable fleet. They were following 
one another, with manned yards and flags flying, and 
bands of music (entirely impromptu), as if upon some gala 
procession. The passengers on board the French packet 
were surprised — Lafayette not the least. 

" What does it mean 7" asked the marquis. 

No one could make answer. 

" Some grand anniversary of your republic, messieurs" 
was the conjecture of Lafayette. 

About noon, the gayly-decked vessels approached ; and 
it was seen that they were all making for the French 
ship, around which they soon clustered. Presently, one of 
the steam-boats came alongside, and a number of gentle- 
men, dressed in official costume, stepped on board of the 
Cadmus. Among them were General Morton, the Mayor of 
the city, and several members of the Common Council. 
Not until they had been some time on the deck of the 
packet, and her captain had introduced them to the Gen- 
eral Marquis de Lafayette, did the modest old soldier know 
that a grand ceremonial was preparing for himself. The 
tears fell fast from his eyes as he received their congratu- 



382 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

lations ; and, on shaking hands with his fellow-passenger, 
the Boston merchant, at parting, he said : 

" Monsieur, I shall love New York so well, I may never 
be able to get away from it to pay you a visit in Boston. 
Pardieu ! This grand republique — this great people ! " 

The object of this early visit upon the marquis, before 
he had landed, was to exchange greetings, and communi- 
cate to him informally the plan that had been made for 
his reception on the next day. The following arrange- 
ments were published in the morning papers of Monday : 

ARRANGEMENTS OP THE CORPORATION FOR THE RECEPTION OP THE 
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE. 

The committee of arrangements of the Corporation have the pleasure to 
announce to their fellow-citizens the arrival of the distinguished guest of their 
country, the Marquis de Lafayette. 

The following are the arrangements made for his reception in the city : 

The committee of arrangements of the Corporation, the generals and other 
officers of the United States Army, the officers of the navy, the major-generals 
and the brigadier-generals of the militia, the President of the Chamber of 
Commerce, and the committee from the Society of Cincinnati, will proceed, at 
nine o'clock this morning, the 16th, to Staten Island, where the marquis is 
lodged, and escort him to the city. They will be accompanied to the Battery 
by the steam-boats, all with decorations, except that in which the marquis is 
embarked, which will only have the flag of the United States and the State 
flag of New York, bands of music being on each. The embarkation of the 
marquis will be announced by a salute from Fort Lafayette and the steam-ship 
Robert Fulton. The forts in the harbor will also salute as the boats pass. 

The masters of vessels are requested to hoist their flags at mast-head, and, 
when convenient, to dress their vessels. 

The bells of the city will be rung from twelve to one o'clock. The com- 
mittee request that no carriages or horses, excepting those attached to the 
military and the procession, appear south of Chambers on Broadway, Market- 
field Street or Whitehall Street, between the hours of eleven and two. 

The portrait-room in the City Hall is appointed to the use of the marquis, 
where, during his stay, he will, after this day, between the hours of twelve 
and two, receive the visits of such of the citizens as are desirous of paying 
their respects to him. 

In accordance with this programme, about half-past 
twelve o'clock, the entire naval procession got under way, 
and proceeded to the city. The embarkation at Staten 
Island was announced by a salute from the shore, which 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 353 

was responded to by Fort Lafayette, and by the steam- 
ship Robert Fulton. The beauty and interest of the scene 
which the vessels afforded to the thousands of spectators, 
who were viewing it from the Battery, can be better im- 
agined than described. The steam-boat Chancellor Living- 
ston, with her venerable passenger, was escorted up the bay 
by the splendid steam-ship Robert Fulton, manned by two 
hundred United States sailors from the Navy Yard, and the 
steam-boats Oliver Ellsworth, Connecticut, Olive Branch, 
and Nautilus, each having on board a large party of ladies 




FORT LAFAYETTE. 



and gentlemen and a band of music ; the whole forming, as 
they approached the city, one of the most imposing and 
splendid of aquatic spectacles. The lofty appearance of 
the steam-ship Robert Fulton, as she proudly " walked the 
waters," leading the van of the procession, — her yards 
manned by sailors, and elegantly dressed from the water 
to the tops of her masts with the flags and signals of all 
nations, — presented a sight which was never forgotten by 
those who witnessed it. The ship Cadmus, towed by the 
steam-boats, brought up the rear, her towering spars 
decorated in the most elegant and fanciful manner with 
ilags and signals. " She moved majestically, as if con- 



384 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

scious of the veneration which was being testified for the 
noble patriot she had conveyed to our shores." As the 
procession passed Governor's Island, a salute was fired 
from Castle William. 

On arriving in the city, the marquis landed at Castle 
Garden on a carpeted stairs prepared for the occasion, and 
under an arch richly decorated with flags and wreaths of 
laurel. On stepping ashore, a major-general's salute was 
fired from a battery of field-artillery, a national salute 
from the revenue-cutter, and from the United States brig 
Shark, at anchor off the Battery, and one from Fort 
Columbus. Upon entering Castle Garden, the marquis 
was greeted with loud and prolonged cheers from the 
assembled thousands, and salutations from a large number 
of the early friends of his youth ; thence he proceeded 
with the committee and the military and naval officers to 
review the troops drawn up in line under the command of 
Major-General Benedict. The muster was, on this occa- 
sion, unusually full and splendid, each corps vying with 
the other in paying a tribute of respect to the Soldier of 
the Revolution, — the friend and companion of Washing- 
ton. After the review, the marquis entered a barouche 
drawn by four horses, and was driven up Broadway to the 
City Hall. The houses to the roofs were lined with spec- 
tators, and to the incessant huzzas of the multitude, 
graceful females signified their welcome by the silent, 
but not less grateful and affecting, testimony of the waving 
of handkerchiefs. Never, on any previous occasion, had 
there been witnessed such a universal assemblage of the 
beauty, fashion, and splendor of the city. 

Upon arriving at the City Hall, the marquis was con- 
ducted to the Common Council chamber, where the Corpor- 
ation were assembled. The members rose at his entrance, 
and their chairman, Alderman Zabriskie, introduced him 
to the Mayor, who welcomed the city's guest in an appro- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 385 

priate speech. At its conclusion Lafayette responded as 
follows : 

" Sir, — While I am so affectionately received by the citizens of New York 
and their worthy Representatives, I feel myself overwhelmed with inexpres- 
sible emotions. The sight of the American shore, after so long an absence ; 
the recollection of the many respected friends and dear companions no more to 
be found on this land ; the pleasure to recognize those who survive, this im- 
mense concourse of a free Republican population who so kindly welcome me ; 
the admirable appearance of the troops, the presence of a corps of the national 
navy, — have excited sentiments to which no human language can be adequate. 
You have been pleased, sir, to allude to the happiest times, to the unalloyed 
enjoyments of my public life ; it is the pride of my life to have been one of the 
earliest adopted sons of America. I am proud, also, to add that, upward of forty 
years ago, I have been particularly honored with the freedom of this city. I 
beg you, Mr. Mayor. I beg you, gentlemen, to accept yourselves, and to trans- 
mit to the citizens of New York, the homage of my everlasting gratitude, devo- 
tion, and respect." 

At the conclusion of this address, which was received 
with most enthusiastic demonstrations, the marquis, 
attended by the Mayor and Common Council, retired from 
the Council chamber to a platform in front of the City 
Hall, where they received a marching salute from the 
troops. The Common Council then accompanied their 
guest to the City Hotel (where rooms had been fitted up 
for his reception), and partook of a sumptuous dinner. 
What must have been the feelings which warmed the 
bosoms of his entertainers when they reflected to whom 
these honors were given ! that it was to a man, who, in 
his youth, devoted his life and fortune to the cause of 
their country ; who willingly shed his blood in the 
acquirement of its independence, and, through all the 
desponding scenes of the Revolution, never forsook the 
side of his and their country's Father, the beloved Wash- 
ington ! 

In the evening, the front of the City Hotel, the City 
Hall, and other buildings were handsomely illuminated ; 
the theaters and public gardens displayed transparencies 
and fireworks; rockets blazed from the different house- 

49 



386 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



tops ; and an immense balloon was sent up from Castle 
Garden, representing the famous horse Eclipse mounted 
by an ancient knight in armor. General hilarity reigned 
supreme. 

On the afternoon of Wednesday, the 18th, General 
Lafayette, with his son, visited the Navy Yard (dining 
with the commandant and a few invited guests), and, in 
the evening of the same day, the rooms of the New York 





NAVY YARD, BROOKLYN. 



Historical Society. A large number of distinguished citi 
zens had collected at the latter place to meet him ; and, 
on his entrance into the room, he was conducted by Doc- 
tor Hosack and General Philip Van Cortlandt to the 
chair that had once been the seat of the unfortunate 
Louis XVI.* Over the chair, and decorated with Revo- 
lutionary emblems, was hung the portrait of Lafayette, 
painted for General Stevens in 17S4. Thus was an 



* Presented to the New York Historical Society by Gouverneur Morris. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 387 

opportunity afforded the audience of gazing at once upon 
the young and chivalrous warrior of the Revolution, and 
upon the same man, who, by forty years' hard service 
since, had ripened into a good old age, full of wisdom and 
honors, and without, by a single act, having tarnished the 
bright escutcheon of his fame. 

As soon as Lafayette had taken his seat, Doctor Hos- 
ack in a graceful address, tendered him his election as an 
honorary member of the society. To which the General 
responded in the following words : 

« Sir -With the most lively gratitude, I receive the honor which the His- 
torical Society of New York have conferred in electing me one of its members. 

« Permit me, also, thankfully to acknowledge the flattering manner in which 
you are pleased to announce this mark of their benevolence. 

« The United States, sir, are the first nation in the records of history who 
have founded their Constitution upon an honest investigation, and clear defi- 
nition of their national and social rights. 

" Nor can we doubt, that, notwithstanding the combinations made elsewhere 
bv despotism and aristocracy against those sacred rights of mankind, immense 
majorities in other countries shall not in vain observe the happiness and pros- 
perity of a free, virtuous, and enlightened people." 

The next day was spent in visiting the Academy of 
Arts, and in receiving the calls of the members of the 
bar, the French residents of the city, and all citizens who 
desired to pay their respects. 

At an early hour on the following day the city again 
presented a scene of bustle and activity, preparatory to 
the departure of General Lafayette and suite for Boston. 
At seven o'clock, the horse artillery, commanded by Col- 
onel Arcularius, paraded in Broadway in front of Wash- 
ington Hall, and, at eight o'clock, took up their line of 
march to Harlem, in order to supersede the escort which 
was to accompany the marquis to that village. This 
escort consisted of a squadron of cavalry, the Corporation 
in carriages, and a number of citizens mounted. The 
General breakfasted with the Mayor, Philip Hone, at 



388 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

half-past seven, and repaired immediately after to the 
City Hotel, whence the entire cavalcade under the com- 
mand of General Prosper M. Wetmore, as Brigade-Major, 
moved up Broadway to Bond Street, and thence up Third 
Avenue. The streets were thronged with people, and the 
General rode uncovered, and repeatedly returned then 
expressions of kindness and attachment by bowing. 
" Thus, for the present," said the Commercial Advertiser, 
" have closed the attentions of our citizens to this excellent 
man. The arrangements of our civil and military officers 
% ' were judicious and well executed ; and we are told that 

the General has not only been highly gratified, but hap- 
pily disappointed, in the reception with which he has met. 
The General's journey will be rapid, as he intends being 
at Harvard commencement on Tuesday next. His stay 
at the eastward must also be short, as he has engaged to 
be in Baltimore on the 15th proximo."* 

* At this time there was a great rivalry between Philadelphia and New 
York, as to which city should receive the marquis most splendidly. A corre- 
spondent, writing from Philadelphia to the Commercial Advertiser at this time, 
says : " The great object here seems to be, to rival the reception given to the 
General in New York ; and, so far as it respects the military parade, the dis- 
play of paintings, banners, arches, &c, they will succeed ; for the very good 
reason that we had but twenty-four hours to make our preparations, and they 
have had more than thirty-four days. But nothing that can be got up here 
can equal, or come anywhere near, the naval fete in the harbor of New York. 

" There are many splendid triumphal and civic arches erected here, and the 
streets through which the General is to pass are lined with spectators. The 
windows of the houses are filled, and there are thousands of spectators in the 
boxes, or temporary stages, which have been erected for the purposes of public 
accommodation and private gain. These seats are let at from twenty-five to 
fifty cents each, and not for three or four dollars, as has been reported in New 
York. And they are not well filled, notwithstanding the trifling expense. 
There are many societies out to-day, handsomely dressed ; and the procession 
will be much larger than has ever been witnessed in America. 

" It is supposed that the General will arrive at the Hall of the Declaration 
ol Independence at about four o'clock. Here he will be received by the Cor- 
poration, and presented to the principal citizens, who have the good fortune to 
be guests. After which he will return to his lodgings at the Mansion House. 
To-morrow, the General dines with the Corporation. On Saturday, he attends 
a Masonic festival. On Monday evening, he attends a Grand Civic Ball, and 
departs for the South on Tuesday." 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 389 

" Such," writes Colonel Stone, in closing an account of 
the ovation, " is a faint outline of the proceedings of the 
last few days, which shine proudly in the annals of our 
country, — proceedings which were more brilliant than any 
that had ever been witnessed in America, and which will 
rarefy, if ever, be equaled. They were proud days for the 
cause of enlightened and liberal principles. No fulsome 
adulation was here extorted by the power or splendor of 
royalty, but every feeling and every movement were the 
spontaneous bursts of admiration and gratitude for the 
character and services of a great benefactor of the whole 
civilized world, come among us in a private capacity, and 
in the unaffected attire of Republican simplicity." 

It was most fitting that the city which had so nobly 
supported the project of the Erie Canal from the begin- 
ning should take the chief part in the ceremonies 

1825 

attending its realization. Probably no project of 
internal improvement ever met with such bitter and 
malignant opposition as that of the Erie Canal ; and, 
great as was the assistance given to the canal project by 
the Act of the New York Legislature of April, 1811, the 
obstacles in the way of its successful completion were by 
no means removed. The same incredulity as to the prac- 
ticability of the canal, and the same apprehensions as to 
the capacity of the State, continued to raise a fierce oppo- 
sition in the Legislature against any appropriation for car- 
rying out the work which it had itself authorized. Many 
attempts were accordingly made to arrest, or at least 
curtail and arrest, the project ; and often during the prog- 
ress of the undertaking it seemed as if it would be utterly 
abandoned. Party spirit at that time ran high, and the 
greatest effort on the part of its supporters was required 
to persuade the people of the State to give it their sup- 
port at the polls. In accomplishing this result, the Com- 



390 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



mercial Advertiser, the oldest paper of New York city, gave 
powerful aid. That paper, which had always been the 
organ of the Federalists, became, upon Colonel Stone's 
assuming its management, in 1820, a stanch advocate of 
the Clintonians. A strong personal friendship for Mr. 
Clinton on the part of its editor, together with a firm con- 
viction of the necessity for a canal through the interior of 
New York State, led to the position thus assumed. The 
trials and rebuffs experienced by Governor Clinton and 
his supporters in pushing the canal project, and the energy 




SANDY HOOK, FROM THE SHIP CHANNEL. 

which fought it through to a triumphant end, are matters 

of history. The Erie Canal was completed in the fall of 

1825. At ten o'clock on the morning of the 26th 

1825 

of October of the same year, the first canal-boat, the 
Seneca Chief, left Buffalo, having on board Governor Clin- 
ton, Joshua Foreman, Colonel Stone, Chancellor Livingston, 
Thurlow Weed, and General Stephen Van Rensselaer ; and 
the booming of cannon, placed at intervals of a few miles 
along the entire line of the canal from Buffalo to Albany, 
and thence along the banks of the Hudson to Sandy Hook, 
announced the successful termination of the enterprise 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 391 

In New York city, especially, this event was celebrated 
by extraordinary civic and military ceremonies, and the 
citizens gave themselves up to the wildest demonstrations 
of jov. Nor was this joy ill-timed or excessive. " For a 
single State to achieve such a victory, not only over the 
doubts and fears of the wary, but over the obstacles of 
nature, causing miles of massive rocks at the mountain 
ridge to yield to its power, turning the tide of error as 
well as that of the Tonnewanda, piling up the waters of 
the mighty Niagara a,s well as those of the beautiful Hud- 
son ; — in short, causing a navigable river to flow with 
gentle current down the steepy mount of Lockport; to 
leap the river of Genesee ; to encircle the brow of Ironde- 
quoit as with the laurel's wreath ; to march through the 
rich fields of Palmyra and of Lyons ; to wencl its way 
through the quicksands of the morass at the Cayuga ; to 
pass unheeded the delicious licks at Onondaga ; to smile 
.through Oneida's verdant landscape ; to hang upon the arm 
of the ancient Mohawk, and with her, after gayly stepping 
down the cadence of the Little Falls and the Cohoes, to 
rush to the embrace of the sparkling Hudson, — and all 
in the space of eight short years, — was the work of 
which the oldest and richest nations of Christendom 
might be proud." * Colonel Stone, as one of the most 
zealous champions of the canal, was appointed to write 
the Narrative of the Celebration, receiving a silver 
medal and box from the Common Council of New York 
city, together with the thanks of that body.t 

* Stone's Narrative. 

f Colonel Stone's narrative of the celebration was published by the Common 
Council under the title of the Grand Erie Canal Celebration, accompanied 
by a memoir of the great work by Cadwallader D. Colden. 

In connection with the Erie Canal and its influence in building up the inte- 
rior towns of the State, Colonel Stone was wont to relate the following ante 
dote : In 1820, he visited Syracuse with Joshua Foreman, the founder of that city 
and one of the earliest and most zealous friends of the Erie Canal. " I lodged 
for the night," says Colonel Stone, " at a miserable tavern, thronged by a com- 



392 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

The naval and land processions in the city on this 
occasion were so unique, and, withal, were projected and 
carried out on such a magnificent scale, that we quote the 
following description from Stone's Narrative, a work which 
is now rare and difficult to obtain: 

" The long-expected fourth of November — a day so 
glorious for the city and State — with all its 'pomp and cir- 
cumstance,' came and passed ; and the incidents, like the 
fragments of a splendid vision, are yet floating, in bright 
and glowing masses, through the imagination. But the 
pageant was too brilliant, and the scenes too various, for 
the memory to retain more than certain vague impres- 
sions, no less beautiful than indistinct. Those who saw 
the magnificent scene will at once admit that it cannot 
be painted in language ; and those who had not that hap- 
piness must content themselves with the assurance, that 
the best endeavors of the writer to convey to them an 
adequate idea of its grandeur will fail. The poet, by 
giving full sway to his imagination, may perhaps partially 
succeed in conveying the various impressions imbibed on 
the occasion, and some detached parts of the scene might 
possibly be used to advantage by the painter who unites 
skill with genius. But we repeat, that the narrative, in 
humble prose, will fall short of a just representation. 

" The grand fleet arrived in our waters from Albany 
before daylight, and came to anchor near the State Prison. 

pany of Bait-boilers from Salina, forming a group of about as rough-looking 
specimens of humanity as I had ever seen. Their wild visages, beards thick 
and long, and matted hair, even now rise up in dark, distant, and picturesque 
effect before me. It was in October, and a flurry of snow during the night had 
rendered the morning aspect of the country more dreary than the evening before. 
The few houses, standing upon low and marshy ground, and surrounded by 
trees and tangled thickets, presented a very uninviting scene. ' Mr. Foreman,' 
said 1, ' do you call this a village? It would make an owl weep to fly over it.' 
' Never mind,' said he, in reply, ' you loill live to see it a city yet ! ' " Colonel 
Stone did, indeed, live to see it a city, when he wrote the above in 1840, with 
a mayor and aldermen, and a population of more than twelve thousand souls 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 393 

The roar of cannon from different points, and the merry 
peals of our numerous bells, greeted the sun as he rose in 
a cloudless sky. In a few moments afterwards, signals 
were given by the flag-ship, and the various flags, ban- 
ners, and other decorations, were run up as if at the sud- 
den command of a magician. Shortly afterwards, the new 
and superb steam-boat Washington, Captain E. S. Bunker, 
bore proudly down upon the fleet, heaving up the foaming 
billows as though she spurned the dominion of Neptune. 
In the language of the Noble Bard, 

' She walked the waters like a thing of life, 
And dared the very elements to strife.' 

She bore the great banner of the Corporation, representing, 
in dark figures, the arms of the city upon a snow-white 
ground. The Washington was an entirely new boat, char- 
tered for the occasion, of large dimensions, beautiful model, 
and superbly finished throughout — uniting all the improve- 
ments in steam-boat architecture. The design of the taff- 
rail represented the renown of Washington and Lafayette. 
The center was a trophy of various emblems — the laurel 
and the olive — standards — swords — the balance — the ca- 
duceus of Mercury, &c. The trophy was surmounted with 
a bald eagle. Each side of it was decorated with a bust 
— on the right, that of Washington ; on the left, the bust 
of Lafayette. The former was crowned with the civic 
wreath and the laurel — the latter with the laurel only. 
The genius of America was crowning her hero, and the 
spirit of Independence, waving the flaming torch, binding 
the brow of Lafayette. Each of these figures was attended 
with emblematic medallions of Agriculture and Commerce. 
The whole was based on a section of the globe, and the 
background was a glory from the trophy. The corners of 
the taffrail were each filled with a cornucopia, which grace- 
fully completed the design, on which neither painting nor 

gilding had been spared to enhance the effect. She ran 
50 



394 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

alongside of the Chancellor, and a Committee of the Cor- 
poration, with the officers of the Governor's Guard, came 
on board to tender his Excellency their congratulations on 
his arrival in our waters from those of Lake Erie. In per- 
forming this duty, Alderman Cowdrey made a handsome 
and pertinent address, in behalf of the Common Council, 
to which his Excellency made a reply in behalf of himself 
and his associates in the great work, and the several per- 
sons and bodies who had been welcomed to the shores and 
waters of New York, and to whom the hospitalities of the 
city had been so cheerfully tendered. To the officers of 
the Guards, headed by Colonel Brett, the Governor also 
expressed his gratitude and thanks for their prompt atten- 
tion on the occasion. 

" This duty having been performed, and there being 
an hour to spare, the several boats entered their respective 
docks, and came to anchor at the places assigned them, to 
give their numerous passengers an opportunity to prepare 
for the enjoyments of the day, agreeably to their various 
inclinations. 

" The escorting fleet got under way, and passed the 
British sloops-of-war Swallow, Captain Baldock, and King- 
fisher, Captain Henderson, dressed for the occasion, and 
bearing the American flag in company with the cross of 
St. George. A salute was fired from these ships, which 
was returned from the fleet. 

" Not the least pleasing of this morning scene was the 
packet-ship Hamlet, Captain Candler, prepared by the 
Marine and Nautical Societies, appearing at sunrise in the 
North River, superbly dressed in the flags of various na- 
tions, interspersed with private signals, and the number- 
flags of the different members. She made a most splendid 
appearance during the whole day. At eight o'clock, these 
societies met on board the steam-boat Fulton, Captain R. 
Bunker, lying at Fulton Street Wharf (East River), and 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 395 

were conveyed on board of the ship, where Captain J. G. 
Collins, assisted by his officers, took the command. Com- 
modore Chauncey politely sent an officer and twenty men 
from the Navy Yard, to assist in the duties of the ship. 
And before they landed, an excellent collation, prepared 
for the occasion by the joint committees of the two 
societies, was spread, of which all on board partook — to 
the number of one hundred and twenty-five. 

" At half-past eight o'clock, the Corporation and their 
invited guests assembled in the Sessions Room at the City 
Hall, and at a quarter before nine proceeded to the steam- 
boats Washington, Fulton, and Providence, stationed at the 
foot of Whitehall Street. At the same place was also sta- 
tioned the Commerce, Captain Seymour, with the elegant 
safety-barge, Lady Clinton. This barge, with the Lady 
Van Rensselaer, had been set apart by the Corporation for 
the reception of the invited ladies, with their attendants. 
The Lady Clinton was decorated with a degree of taste and 
elegance which was equally delightful and surprising. 
From stem to stern she was ornamented with evergreens 
hung in festoons and intertwined with roses of various 
hues, China asters, and many other flowers alike beauti- 
ful. In one of the niches below the upper deck was the 
bust of Clinton, the brow being encircled with a wreath 
of laurel and roses. Mrs. Clinton, as well as many other 
distinguished ladies, was on board of the barge, which, 
though the party was select, was much crowded. Captain 
Seymour, however, paid every attention to his beautiful 
charge ; every countenance beamed with satisfaction and 
every eye sparkled with delight. 

"A few minutes after nine o'clock, the entire party 
being on board, the fleet from Albany, as before men- 
tioned, led by the flag-ship of the Admiral, came round 
from the North and proceeded up the East River to the 
Navy Yard, where salutes were fired, and the sloop-of-war 



396 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Ct/ane was dressed in the colors of all nations. While 
here, the nag-ship took on board the officers of that sta- 
tion, together with their line band of music. The officers 
stationed at West Point, with the celebrated band from 
that place, having been received on board on the preced- 
ing evening, were likewise on board of the Chancellor Liv- 
ingston. On returning from the Navy Yard, the steam- 
boat Ousatonic. of Derby, joined the fleet The wharves 
and shores of Brooklyn, the Heights, and the roofs of 
many of the buildings, were crowded with people to an 
extent little anticipated, and only exceeded by the thick 
masses of population which lined the shores of New York 
as far as Corker's Hook. The fleet, having arrived between 
the east end of the Battery and Governor's Island, was 
joined by the ship Hamlet, before mentioned. While the 
commander was signaling the various vessels, and they were 
maneuvering about to take their stations, the spectacle was 
beautiful beyond measure. Long before this time, however, 
our city had been pouring forth its thousands and tens of 
thousands ; Castle Garden, the Battery, and every avenue 
to the water, were thronged to a degree altogether beyond 
precedent. The ships and vessels in the harbor were filled, 
even to their rigging and tops. And the movements in 
forming the order of the aquatic procession gave opportu- 
nity to all to observe the several vessels in every advan- 
tageous and imposing situation. Loud cheers resounded 
from every direction, which were often returned. Every- 
thing being in readiness, and every boat crowded to the 
utmost, the fleet, taking a semicircular sweep toward Jer- 
sey City, and back obliquely in the direction of the lower 
point of Governor's Island, proceeded down the bay in the 
order detailed in the official report of the Admiral, each 
boat and ship maintaining the distance of one hundred 
feet apart. 

" The ship Hamlet was taken in tow by the Oliver Ells- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 397 

ivorth and Bolivar, and assumed and maintained its place 
in splendid style. Four pilot-boats were also towed by 
other steam-boats, together with the following boats of 
Whitehall watermen, all tastefully decorated, viz. : The 
Lady of the Lake, Dispatch, Express, Brandy wine, Sylph, 
Active, and Whitehall, Junior. 

" The sea was tranquil and smooth as the summer 
lake ; and the mist which came on between seven and 
eight in the morning having partially floated away, the 
sun shone bright and beautiful as ever. As the boats 
passed the Battery they were saluted by the military, the 
revenue-cutter, and the castle on Governor's Island ; and, 
on passing the Narrows, they were also saluted by Forts 
Lafayette and Tompkins. They then proceeded to the 
United States schooner. Porpoise, Captain Zantzinger, 
moored within Sandy Hook, at the point where the grand 
ceremony was to be performed. A deputation, composed 
of Aldermen King and Taylor, was then sent on board the 
steam-boat Chancellor Livingston, to accompany his Excel- 
lency the Governor, the Lieutenant-Governor, and the 
several committees from Buffalo, Utica, Albany, and other 
places, on board the steam-boat Washington. 

" The boats were thereupon formed in a circle around 
the schooner, preparatory to the ceremony ; when Mr. 
Rhind, addressing the Governor, remarked ' that he had a 
request to make which he was confident it would afford 
his Excellency great pleasure to grant. He was desirous of 
preserving a portion of the water used on this memorable 
occasion, in order to send it to our distinguished friend 
and late illustrious visitor, Major-General Lafayette ; and, 
for that purpose, Messrs. Dumraer & Co. had prepared 
some bottles of American fabric for the occasion, and they 
were to be conveyed to the General in a box made by Mr. 
D. Phyfe from a log of cedar brought from Erie in the 
Seneca Chief.'' The Governor replied that a more pleasing 



398 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

task could not have been imposed upon him, and expressed 
his acknowledgment to Mr. Rhind for having suggested 
the measure. 

" His Excellency, Governor Clinton, then proceeded 
to perform the ceremony of commingling the waters of 
the Lake with the Ocean, by pouring a keg of those of 
Lake Erie into the Atlantic ; upon which he delivered the 
following address : 

" ' This solemnity, at this place, on the first arrival of 
vessels from Lake Erie, is intended to indicate and com- 
memorate the navigable communication which has been 
accomplished between our Mediterranean Seas and the 
Atlantic Ocean in about eight years, to the extent of more 
than four hundred and twenty-live miles, by the wisdom, 
public spirit, and energy of the people of the State of New 
York ; and may the God of the Heavens and the Earth 
smile most propitiously on this work, and render it sub- 
servient to the best interests of the human race.' 

" Dr. Mitchill, whose extensive correspondence with 
almost every part of the world enables him to fill his cabi- 
net with everything rare and curious, then completed the 
ceremony by pouring into the briny deep bottles of water 
from the Ganges and Indus of Asia ; the Nile and the 
Gambia of Africa ; the Thames, the Seine, the Rhine, and 
the Danube of Europe ; the Mississippi and Columbia of 
North, and the Orinoko, La Plata, and Amazon, of South 
America. The Hon. Cadwallader D. Colden then pre- 
sented to the Mayor an able Memoir upon the subject of 
Canals and Inland Navigation in general. 

" Never before was there such a fleet collected, and so 
superbly decorated ; and it is very possible that a display 
so grand, so beautiful, and we may even add, sublime, will 
never be witnessed again. We know of nothing with 
which it can be compared. The naval fete given by the 
Prince Regent of England, upon the Thames, during the 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 399 

visit of the Allied Sovereigns of Europe to London, after the 
dethronement of Napoleon, has been spoken of as exceeding 
everything of the kind hitherto witnessed in Europe. But 
gentlemen who had an opportunity of witnessing both, 
have declared that the spectacle in the waters of New 
York so far transcended that in the metropolis of England 
as scarcely to admit of a comparison. The day, as we have 
before remarked, was uncommonly fine. No winds agi- 
tated the surface of the mighty deep ; and during the 
performance of the ceremonies, the boats, with their gay 
decorations, lay motionless in beauty. The orb of day 
darted his genial rays upon the bosom of the waters, 
where they played as tranquilly as upon the natural 
mirror of a secluded lake. Indeed, the elements seemed 
to repose, as if to gaze upon each other, and participate 
in the beauty and grandeur of the sublime spectacle. 
Every object appeared to pause, as if to invite reflection 
and prepare the mind for deep impressions — impressions 
which, while we feel them stealing upon the soul, impart 
a consciousness of their durability. It was one of those 
few bright visions whose evanescent glory is allowed to 
light up the path of human lite — which, as they are pass- 
ing, we feel can never return ; and which, in diffusing a 
sensation of pleasing melancholy, consecrates, as it were, 
all surrounding objects, even to the atmosphere we inhale. 

" While the fleet was here at anchor, a deputation 
from the members of the Assembly from different parts 
of the State, who were on board one of the steam-boats as 
guests of the Corporation, preceded by Clarkson Crolius, 
Esq., their Speaker, paid a visit to the Seneca Chief] to 
reciprocate congratulations with the Buffalo committee on 
the completion of the Grand Canal, to which the Legisla- 
ture, of whom they were members, had made the last and 
finishing appropriation. 

" Everything being made ready for returning to the 



400 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

city, salutes were fired from the revenue-cutter, the pilot- 
boats, several of the steam-boats, and from the ' Young 
Lion of the West,' who, having prepared himself with a 
pair of brazen lungs at Rochester, often mingled his roar 
with that of the artillery with which he was saluted on 
his passage down. While passing up the Narrows, the 
passengers on board of the different boats partook of ele- 
gant collations. The Corporation, with their guests, dined 
on board of the the Washington, the Mayor presiding, 
assisted by Aldermen King and Taylor. 

" When approaching the British armed vessels before 
mentioned, the latter fired another salute. In consequence 
of this compliment, a signal was immediately made from 
the flag-ship, and the whole squadron passed round them 
in a circle. The United States schooner Porpoise manned 
her yards and gave the Britons three cheers, which were 
returned. While performing this circular maneuver, the 
British bands struck up ' Yankee Doodle '; in return for 
which act of courtesy, the American bands, as they passed 
the other side, successively played ' God Save the King.' 
Another circumstance connected with these demonstra- 
tions of good feeling must not be omitted : On board of 
the Swallow an elegant breakfast was given, in honor of 
the occasion, by her commander, Lieutenant Baldock, to 
a numerous company of ladies and gentlemen, on which 
occasion was tastefully displayed a series of elegant and 
appropriate drawings, in water-colors, representing Britan- 
nia, Columbia, the Eagle, the Lion, and an English and 
American Sailor, Neptune, Liberty, and the flags and 
shields of both nations, all classically arranged, denoting 
good feeling, fellowship, and union of sentiment. There 
were also round one of the devices for a tower two designs 
of canal-basins, with double locks — one as coming through 
Welsh mountains, the other as through American mount- 
ains of granite ; and on their basements were conspicu- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 401 

ously inscribed ' Clinton ' and ' Bridgewater,' in honor of 
men whose pursuits in each country were so similar. The 
whole was designed by J. 11. Smith, and executed by him 
and an assistant. 

" One reflection occurred to us when the fleet was 
below the Narrows, which, although it has no immediate 
relation to the time or the occasion, it may not be amiss 
to mention. When we viewed the number and tonnage 
of the steam-boats employed, and the countless multitude of 
passengers borne upon their spacious decks, we could not 
but reflect upon the facilities of defense which, by means 
of steam navigation, our city would possess in the event 
of hostilities with any maritime power, and an attempt 
upon our lives and property from this direction. There 
were out upon this occasion, besides other craft of magni- 
tude, no less than twenty-nine steam-boats, each capable 
of carrying from twelve to twenty-four guns, and from one 
to five hundred men. And from the readiness with which 
this force assembled, and from the rapid multiplication of 
vessels of this description with the increase of business in 
our metropolis, there is no doubt that even at the present 
moment 'fifty boats, with ten thousand men and six or 
seven hundred guns, might be collected, prepared, and 
sent to repel an approaching naval armament, in one or, 
at most, two days. Neither winds nor tides could stay 
their progress, or control their movements. They could 
choose their own time, position, and points of attack; and 
tremendous must be the power that could successfully 
oppose, and superhuman the skill that could baffle, an 
expedition of this kind, directed by the hand of valor and 
sustained by the unconquerable spirit of freemen ! 

" The head of the land procession, under Major-General 
Fleming, marshal of the day, assisted by Colonels King 
and Jones, Major Low, and Mr. Van Winkle, had already 
arrived on the Battery, where it was designed the whole 

51 



402 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

should pass in review before the Corporation and their 
guests, and the spectators on board of the other boats, 
which lay to near the shore, to afford an opportunity of 
witnessing the cars, and banners, and other decorations of 
the several societies, professions, and callings, who had 
turned out in the city in honor of the event commemo- 
rated. The Washington and Chancellor Livingston ran into 
the Pier No. 1, in the East River, and landed the Corpo- 
ration and their friends at the proper time for them to 
fall into the rear of the procession. The fleet then dis- 
persed, each vessel repairing to its own moorings ; and 
thus, without a single accident to alloy the festivities of 
the day, ended an agreeable fete, unrivaled in beauty and 
magnificence, we fearlessly aver, in the annals of the world. 

" This narrative would probably be considered incom- 
plete, were it not to include a notice of that part of the 
pageant which was exclusively confined to the city. And 
yet a minute description can hardly be deemed necessary, 
since the ample official report of the marshal of the day 
is included among the papers collected in this volume. 
To be as brief as possible, therefore, we will state, in gen- 
eral terms, that the procession through the city, although 
it could not, from the very nature of things, present to the 
eye the bright and glowing images which ravished the 
senses upon the water, was yet such as to reflect the 
highest credit upon our city, the societies, and individuals, 
whose patriotism induced them to bear a part, and the 
occasion which called them forth. 

" The civic procession was composed of the several 
benevolent and mechanic societies of our city ; the fire 
department ; the merchants and citizens ; the officers of 
the State artillery and infantry, in uniform ; the literary 
and scientific institutions ; the members of the bar ; the 
members of many occupations and callings not formally 
organized into societies, accompanied by fine bands of 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 403 

music, exclusively of the Corporation, their associate com- 
mittees and distinguished guests, who fell in the rear of 
the procession, as before mentioned, at the Battery. This 
procession, the largest of the kind ever witnessed in 
America, commenced forming in Greenwich Street, six 
abreast, at nine o'clock a. m. — the right resting in Market- 
field Street, near the Battery, and extending to the distance 
of more than a mile and a half. The line of march was 
taken up at half-past ten. Its first movement was a 
counter-march of the whole column upon the right wing. 
By this maneuver, every society and division was brought 
into such close approximation with each other as to afford 
every individual a distinct view of the whole. The pro- 
cession moved from Greenwich Street through Canal 
Street into Broadway, up Broadway to Broome Street, up 
Broome Street to the Bowery, down the Bowery to Pearl 
Street, down Pearl Street to the Battery, over the Battery 
to Broadway, and thence to the City Hall. Along the 
whole extensive line of march, the spectacle was of a 
most imposing and animating description. Every society 
and occupation seemed to have been engaged in a laudable 
strife, regardless of the expense, to excel each other in the 
richness of their banners, and the beauty and taste ex- 
hibited in their badges and other decorations. Nor had 
the money of the societies been expended, or the skill of 
the artists of our city exercised, in vain. For never did 
a more imposing array of banners, of exquisite design and 
magnificent appearance, stream and flutter in the breeze. 
Many of the societies, likewise, had furnished themselves 
with cars of gigantic structure, upon which their respective 
artisans were busily engaged in their several occupations. 
The ornaments of many of these cars were curiously 
wrought, and they were otherwise beautifully and splen- 
didly decorated. The richest Turkey or Brussels carpets 
covered the floors of some, whilst the costly gilding of 



404 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

others reflected back the golden rays of the sun with 
dazzling effulgence.* The eye of beauty, too, gazed with 
delight upon the passing scene ; for every window was 
thronged, and the myriads of handkerchiefs which flut- 
tered in the air were only rivaled in whiteness by the 
delicate hands which suspended them ; while the glowing- 
cheeks, the ingenuous smiles of loveliness and innocence, 
and the intelligence which beamed brightly from many a 
sparkling eye, proclaimed their possessors worthy of being 
the wives, mothers, and daughters of freemen. It was, in 
fine, a proud spectacle ; but language fails in attempting 
its description — much more in imparting to paper the 
sensations which it created. It is not difficult to describe 
individual objects correctly, but it is impossible to portray 
their general effect, when happily grouped together. It is 
amid scenes like these — a faint gleam of which can only 
be conveyed to the future antiquary or historian — that 
the mind is absorbed in its own reflections, musing in 
solitude, though surrounded by the gay and the thought- 
less, and literally lost in its own imaginings. 

" The festivities of the day were closed in the evening 
by illuminations of the public buildings and the principal 
hotels, upon many of which appropriate transparencies 
were exhibited. The illumination of the City Hotel con- 
tributed largely to the brilliant appearance of Broadway. 
Great taste was also displayed in the illumination of the 
New York Coffee-house. The front in Sloat Lane pre- 
sented a brilliant wreath, encircling the letter " C." The 
front, in William Street, displayed the words " Grand 
Canal," in large and glowing capitals. We do not re- 
member to have seen a more original and beautiful method 
of illuminating than that adopted at this establishment. 
Peale's Museum presented a beautiful transparency — rays 

* For a particular description of the several cars, banners, and badges, the 
reader is referred to the report of the marshal of the day. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 4Q5 

of glory, containing a motto illustrative of the dependence 
of the fine arts upon the success of commerce. Scudder's 
Museum, likewise, was brilliantly illuminated, and a very 
large and beautiful transparency was exhibited in front. 
The Park Theater was illuminated, and also exhibited 
appropriate transparencies without ; while within, an in- 
terlude, composed for the occasion by Mr. Noah, with 
scenery specially prepared for the occasion, was received 
with great applause. A similar production, from the pen 
of Mr. Woodworth, was played at the Chatham Theater, 
and was likewise well received. The house of Mr. Seixas, 
in Broadway, was illuminated ; and an appropriate trans- 
parency, representing Fortune embarking on board of a 
canal-boat, loaded with bags of money, and several 
appropriate emblematical devices, were exhibited. At 
" The Lunch," a transparency was exhibited representing 
the canal-boat Seneca Chief receiving on board his 
Excellency the Governor, the Buffalo deputation, Indian 
chiefs, &c, preparatory to her passage from Lake Erie 
into the Canal. But the City Hall was the grand point 
of attraction, and too much praise cannot be given to our 
Corporation for the great exertions which they made to 
contribute to the enjoyment and festivities of the day. 
The City Hall, under their direction, was superbly illu- 
minated, the front presenting a very magnificent trans- 
parency, on which were painted interesting views of the 
Canal, columns with the names of worthies, figures em- 
blematical of the occasion, &c. The fire-works, prepared 
by Mr. Wilcox, far exceeded the public expectation, and 
were unrivaled of the kind. Such rockets were never 
before seen in New York. They were uncommonly large. 
Now they shot forth alternately showers of fiery serpents 
and dragons, ' gorgons, and hydras, and chimeras dire ;' 
and now they burst forth and rained down showers of 
stars, floating in the atmosphere like balls of liquid silver. 



406 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

The volcanic eruption of fire-balls and rockets with which 
this exhibition was concluded, afforded a spectacle of vast 
beauty and sublimity. They were sent up apparently 
from the rear of the hall to a great height, diverging like 
rays from a common center, then floating for a moment 
like meteors of the brightest light, and falling over in a 
graceful curve, presenting a scene magnificent and enchant- 
ing. The park was filled to overflowing ; not less than 
eight or ten thousand admiring spectators were collected 
in it to view the splendid display which the Corporation 
had prepared so munificently for their fellow-citizens. 

" Thus passed a day so glorious to the State and city, 
and so deeply interesting to the countless thousands who 
were permitted to behold and mingle in its exhibitions. 
We have before said that all attempts at description must 
be utterly in vain. Others can comprehend the greatness 
of the occasion ; the Grand Canal is completed, and the 
waters of Lake Erie have been borne upon its surface, and 
mingled with the ocean. But it is only those who were 
present, and beheld the brilliant scenes of the day, that 
can form any adequate idea of their grandeur, and of the 
joyous feelings which pervaded all ranks of the commu- 
nity. Never before had been presented to the sight a fleet 
so beautiful as that which then graced our waters. The 
numerous array of steam-boats and barges proudly breast- 
ing the billows, and dashing on their way regardless of 
opposing winds and tides ; the flags of all nations, and ban- 
ners of every hue, streaming splendidly in the breeze ; the 
dense columns of black smoke ever and anon sent up from 
the boats, now partially obscuring the view, and now 
spreading widely over the sky and softening down the 
glare of light and color ; the roar of cannon from the vari- 
ous forts, accompanied by heavy volumes of white smoke, 
contrasting finely with the smoke from the steam-boats ; 
the crowds of happy beings who thronged the decks, and 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 407 

the voice of whose joy was mingled with the sound of 
music, and not infrequently drowned by the hissing of 
the steam ; all these, and a thousand other circumstances, 
awakened an interest so intense, that ' the eye could not 
be satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing.' We 
rejoiced, and all who were there rejoiced ; although, as we 
looked upon the countless throng, we could not but remem- 
ber the exclamation of Xerxes, and feel that ' a hundred 
years hence, not one of all that vast multitude will be 
alive.' The splendor of beauty and the triumph of art 
serve to excite, to dazzle, and often to improve the condi- 
tion and promote the welfare of mankind; but the < fash- 
ion of this world passeth away;' beauty and art, with all 
their triumphs and splendors, endure but for a season; 
and earth itself, with all its lakes and oceans, is only as 
the small dust of the balance in the sight of Him who 
dwells beyond the everlasting hills.* 

" On Monday evening, the 7th of November, the fes- 
tivities of our city were appropriately concluded by a ball, 
which was given in the Lafayette Amphitheater, in Lau- 
rens Street, by the officers of the militia, associated with 
a committee of citizens. The circus-buildings, comprising 
a spacious stage used for dramatic representations, was 
enlarged by the addition of an edifice in the rear, which 
had been used for a riding-school. These were connected 
in such a manner as to form an area of much greater 
extent than that of any other ball-room in the United 
States, being nearly two hundred feet in length, and vary- 
ing from sixty to about one hundred feet in width. The 
usual entrance to the circus from Laurens Street was 
closed up, and new entrances opened from Thompson 
Street, in the rear, through the riding-school. The front 

* For a letter from Colonel Stone to Dr. Hosack upon the legislative pro- 
ceedings of 1816-17, in regard to the Erie Canal, see Hosack's Memoir of Be 
Witt CVnton. 



408 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

was brilliantly illuminated, presenting in large letters, 
formed by bright lamps, extending over the doors across 
the building, the words ' The Grand Canal.' The whole 
area within was newly floored for the occasion, and divided 
into three compartments by the original division of the 
audience part of the circus, the stage, and the additional 
building on Thompson Street. Of these we shall speak in 
order, but briefly. The two tiers of boxes were preserved, 
and decorated for the accommodation of that part of the 
company which chose to retire and be spectators of the 
bus}- assemblage below. Access was obtained to them 
through a flight of steps in the middle of the boxes, of 
which the center one had been removed. The dome in 
this part of the hall was ornamented with green wreaths, 
which were appropriately festooned with beautiful and 
various flowers, sweeping gracefully to the pillars which 
supported the boxes, terminating at and around them. 
Above the proscenium were the names of the engineers who 
had been employed in the construction of the Canal, viz., 
Briggs, White, Geddes, Wright, Thomas; opposite these, 
and in the center of the circle of boxes, was a bust of 
Washington, surrounded with evergreens, and around were 
inscribed the names of the past and the present Canal 
Commissioners — Hart, Bouck, Holly, De Witt. North, Liv- 
ingston, Fulton, Clinton, Van Rensselaer, Morris, Eddy, 
Young, Seymour, Porter, Ellicott. 

" From the roof, splendid chandeliers added their blaze 
of light to the numberless lamps which were hung nearly 
parallel to the upper boxes. Passing into the upper apart- 
ment, the eye was met by a scene of equal splendor. One 
side of this room, which is the stage of the theater, was 
formed by a beautiful piece of scenery, representing the 
interior of an elegant chamber, with proper doors, hand- 
somely ornamented. The other side was occupied by a 
band of music, placed behind a species of turret, on 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 4Q9 

the face of which arches were skillfully painted, and in 
the distance of which landscapes were represented. Here 
was also hung the painting, spoken of near the commence- 
ment of this narrative, from the cabin of the canal-boat, 
faithfully representing the whole arrangement at that 
place. The music of the band which was placed here was 
excellent, and we discovered that the bugle-notes were 
those of Willis, of West Point. Our national stripes were 
suspended from the center, and tastefully looped up from 
the extremities of the ceiling, forming a complete circum- 
ference of regular semicircles, meeting in a common center. 
Here, also, were lamps and chandeliers, and wreaths of 
flowers, and garlands of roses, and various devices and 
emblems, highly creditable to the managers. But it was 
to the third and remaining apartment that the exer- 
tions of the committee were directed, and their success 
was correspondent. So many and so elegant were the 
decorations, that the writer cannot hope to give them 
more than a very brief notice, in which he must call upon 
the imagination of the reader to increase with treble 
intensity the imperfect idea given of the splendor of deco- 
ration displayed. Imagine in a large hall, collected, and 
displayed in one grand view, the flags and emblems and 
costly decorations, which, in a continued and scattered 
procession, called forth such enthusiasm of admiration. 
Imagine them presented in one overwhelming view, blaz- 
ing with light, and bright with reflected beauty ; and when 
a proper idea is formed of the complete enchantment of the 
scene, add to this, in one prodigious mirror, the whole 
reflected back in trebled brilliancy, doubling the immense 
area, including the thousand lights that sparkled around, 
to tenfold greater splendor. And when all this is done, the 
imagination of the whole scene will be faint to the real- 
ity. Floods of light were poured forth from every point, 
which were glanced back by the glittering array of the mili- 

52 



410 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

tary, and a thousand other objects of brilliant reflec- 
tion. 

" But entrancing, above all other enchantments of the 
scene, was the living enchantment of beauty — the trance 
which wraps the senses in the presence of loveliness, when 
woman walks the halls of fancy — magnificence herself — 
the brightest object in the midst of brightness and beauty. 
A thousand faces were there, bright in intelligence, and 
radiant with beauty, looking joy and congratulation to 
each other, and spreading around the spells which the 
loves and the graces bind on the heart of the sterner sex. 

" It only remains to speak of the ladies' supper-room, 
which was separated from the large apartment by flags 
elegantly festooned, and raised at the given signal. Mir- 
rors, and splendid lights, and emblems, and statues, and 
devices, beyond the writer's abilities to describe, orna- 
mented this part of the house in common with the rest. 
Upon the supper- table was placed, floating in its proper 
element (the waters of P]rie) a miniature canal-boat, made 
entirely of maple-sugar, and presented to Governor Clin- 
ton by Colonel Hinman, of Utica. The refreshments were 
excellent ; and, considering the vast number who were to 
partake of them, very plentifully provided. At a season- 
able hour the company retired, with memories stored for 
future conversation, with the events, and decorations, and 
splendors of ' The Grand Canal Ball.' " 

That this joy was not ill-timed and excessive, the 
steady increase of the productiveness of the State affords 
conclusive proof. Many of the supporters of the " Big 
Ditch," who, at the time, were regarded as enthusiastic 
and visionary, have lived to see their most sanguine pre- 
dictions more than realized, as well as the complete refu- 
tation of the opinion which one of our greatest statesmen, 
whose zeal for internal improvements could not be ques- 
tioned, was known to have expressed, that this enterprise 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 411 

had been undertaken a hundred years too soon, and that, 
until the lapse of another century, the strength of our 
population and our resources would be inadequate to such 
a work.* 

While, however, New York city was thus vindicating 
her claim to a place in the van of internal improve- 
ments, she did not hesitate to take the lead, also, 

182G. 

in extending aid to a nation at that time struggling 

for its release from the thraldom of an oppressor. Greece 

* The following statistics were furnished hy the late Hon. Nathaniel S. Ben- 
ton, for many years an able Canal Auditor : 

The amount of tolls in 1823 was $199,655.08 ; in 1866, $3,966,522.52 ; and 
the total amount of tolls from 1823 to 1866, inclusive, $90,153,279.19. The 
amount of tons going to tide-water is given in the report only as far back as 1836. 
In 1836, the number of tons going to tide-water over the Canal was only 419,125 ; 
in 1866, 2,523,664 ; and the total amount between these two years, inclusive, was 
52,761,967. It also appears that, in 1837, the estimated value of all property 
transported on the Canal was $47,720,879 ; in 1865, $186,114,718 ; and between 
these years, inclusive, $3,439,407,522. The amount of tons that came to this 
city in 1857, without breaking bulk, was 381,390; in 1866, 1,633,172; and 
between those years, 11 ,775.396. This ratio of increase seems to be broken in upon 
only in one particular, viz., in the amount of tons — the product of the State itself 
— arriving at tide-water. In 1836, this was 364,901 ; and in 1865, 173,538. Here 
the previous rule is reversed, and instead of a gain there is a considerable fall- 
ing-off. This, however, is not to be attributed to a decrease in production, but 
to the fact that the channels by which produce is conveyed to the city are 
becoming more numerous each succeeding year. This is evident, if the amount 
brought down by the Champlain Canal for 1866(561,053) be added, which gives 
a total of 734,591. And if to this could be added the number of tons that now 
go by way of the Central and other railroads of the State, which otherwise 
would have gone by the Canal, the sum would be very greatly increased. 
Indeed, this element of transportation by rail must be taken into calculation in 
forming a correct estimate of the importance of the Canal. It will be seen by 
the figures given above, that, with the exception just mentioned, the Canal shows 
a steady increase in its tolls and tonnage, notwithstanding the vast amount of 
freight yearly diverted from it by the railroads, and by vessels which now con- 
vey considerable freight from Buffalo direct to Europe, which formerly was 
brought to this city for shipment abroad. And to this must also be added the 
large amount of trade which has been directed by various channels into the 
Western States. 

The report of the Auditor gives also the cost of the enlargement up to the 
close of 1866, viz., $33,080,613.80. The original cost was $7,143,789.86 ; the 
total cost, therefore, up to 31st of December, 1866, is $40,224,403.66. 



412 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

was at this period writhing under the heel of the Sultan. 
In the first three years of the war, that nation had received 
no material aid in men or money. This arose probably 
from the fact, that, at this time, the Greeks were in no 
need of assistance. Fighting with enthusiasm, and upon 
their own soil, they had beaten off the Turkish hordes, 
and cleared most of the country of their oppressors. In 
this year, however, affairs wore a different hue. Byron 
had died, and the dark days of the revolution had begun. 
The Egyptian Vizier had responded to the appeals of the 
Sultan ; and his son, Ibrahim Pasha, landing an organized 
and regular army on the Peloponnesus, swept everything 
before him. In less than two years, the Greeks were 
driven from the plains and all the open country to the 
caves and recesses in the mountains, retaining only here 
and there a fortress. As it was a war without quarter, 
every one fled ; for surrender was death to every man and 
dishonor to every woman. Two seasons brought them to 
the point of starvation. Their vines had been pulled up, 
their olive-trees burned, their fields desolated, their flocks 
slain and eaten. Snails and sorrel were their only food ; 
and the only alternative left, on the part of the Greeks, was 
starvation or submission. Guerrilla bands alone hovered 
around the flanks and rear of the invading hosts. At this 
point, Dr. Samuel G. Howe, urged by a pure philanthropy, 
set out for Greece. After experiencing many vicissitudes, 
and languishing for several months in a Prussian dungeon, 
he at length landed upon the Peloponnesus alone, from an 
Austrian vessel going to Smyrna. As there was, however, 
no organization among the Greeks, he could do nothing, 
and accordingly returned to the United States to get help. 
On his arrival at Boston, he found that Greek committees, 
under the lead of Edward Everett and Daniel Webster, 
were already formed ; and, after doing what he could to 
organize efforts for raising supplies, he came to New York. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 413 

at the solicitation of Colonel Stone, with whom he had 
been for a long time in correspondence, with a view to 
this end.* Colonel Stone now threw himself heartily into 
the good work. He roused the public through his paper, 
the Commercial Advertiser ; issued stirring appeals for aid ; 
depicted in vivid colors the sufferings of the Greeks ; and 
got up private meetings of wealthy men, at which large 
subscriptions were obtained.! After doing all that could 
be done in the city, he accompanied Dr. Howe upon a 
tour up the Hudson River, and through the western towns 
of the State, preaching a sort of crusade for the relief of 
the Greeks.^ 

The general results are well known. Through the 
efforts of those persons who have been mentioned, ships, 
and large amounts of grain, flour, clothing, and money, 
were obtained, forwarded, and distributed among the 

* Letter from Dr. Samuel G. Howe to the author. 

f In this connection, the author recalls an anecdote characteristic of both the 
parties to whom it refers. Colonel Stone, while engaged in securing subscriptions 
for the Greeks, called upon John Jacob Astor, 1st, for a considerable amount. To 
all his persuasions the old fur-merchant turned a deaf ear, finally alleging that 
he himself was really quite poor. " Yes, Mr. Astor," replied the Colonel, " every 
one is poor nowadays but you and me." Astor knew that the Colonel was, at 
this time, very much embarrassed, having lost nearly all his property by 
indorsing ; and, upon this reply, so archly given, he joined in the laugh, and 
handed the Colonel his check for considerably more than the sum asked for. 

\ At a mass meeting held in the Cooper Institute on the 26th of January, 
1867, in behalf of the Cretan patriots — his Honor Mayor Hoffman in the chair — 
Professor R. C. Hitchcock D. D., in paying a high tribute to the early friends 
of the Greeks in the United States, said : " In Massachusetts, Dr. Howe, Web- 
ster, and Everett ; in Kentucky, Clay. But let us not forget one of our own 
fellow-citizens, who battled hard for the liberties of the Greeks, and who was one 
of three who received from the Greeks themselves a token of the respect and 
veneration in which he was held, — a name that has been strangely omitted of 
late when speaking of the early struggles of the Greeks ; a man whose grace- 
ful pen has adorned our national literature; who wrote thrilling articles to 
rouse the people to a sense of the wrongs of those patriots ; one who traveled 
up the Hudson, speaking to any one and every one that thronged around him, 
of the great subject that occupied the whole power of his mind, — the liberty of 
the Greeks; one second only, if even second to any, to Dr. Howe himself — the 
name of William L. Stone." 



414 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

starving people of Greece, which, by the immediate relief 
thus brought, and by the moral support thus given at the 
most critical period of the Greek Revolution, helped 
materially to aid the cause * 

* Memoir of Colonel William L. Stone, by William L. Stone, 2d. Albany • 
J. Munsell. 1866. 



CHAPTER VI. 

In 1828, Sa-go-ye-wat-ha, or Red-Jacket, the great 
Seneca orator, visited New York on his way to Washing- 
ton. In 1797, his rival — though in a different field 

1 828. 

— Tha-yen-da-ne-gea, or Brant, had also paid a 
visit to New York, at which time he was the guest of 
Theodosia, the daughter of the Vice-President, Aaron 
Burr, at Richmond Hill. Miss Theodosia treated the 
forest chief with all the courtesy that hospitality sug- 
gested ; and, young as she was, she performed the honors 
of her father's house (Burr was then in Philadelphia) in a 
manner that must have been as gratifying to her absent 
parent as it was creditable to herself. Among other 
attentions, she gave him a dinner party, selecting for her 
guests some of the most eminent gentlemen in the city, 
among whom were Bishop Moore and Drs. Bard and 
Hosack. In writing to her father upon the subject, she 
gave a long and sprightly account of the entertainment. 
She said that, in making the preliminary arrangements, 
she had been somewhat at a loss in the selection of such 
dishes as would suit the palate of her principal guest. 
Being a savage warrior, and in view of the many tales she 
had heard of 

The cannibals that each other eat, 

The anthropophagi, and men whose heads 

Do grow beneath their shoulders, 



416 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

she added, sportively, that she had a mind to lay the 
hospital under contribution for a human head, to be served 
up like a boar's head in ancient hall barbaric. But, after 
all, she found him a most Christian and civilized guest in 
his manners.* 

In like manner, Red- Jacket, during his stay in the city, 
was made the " lion " of the hour ; and many of the oldest 
and most distinguished families vied with each other to 
do him honor. While in New York, his portrait was taken 
by Robert W. Weir, at the request of Dr. John W. Francis. 
Henry Inman and Mr. Mathias also made sketches of 
him ; but the one by Weir is of far the highest order of 
merit, and has become the standard likeness of " the last 
of the Seneca orators." An acquaintance of several 
years, and the reception of some trilling presents from Dr. 
Francis, had enabled the latter to educe a promise from 
the old chief to sit on his next visit to New York.' This 
happened in the present year ; when, with his interpreter, 
Jemison, he very promptly repaired to the studio of Mr. 
Weir. " For this purpose,"' writes Dr. Francis to his 
friend William Dunlop,t " he dressed himself in the cos- 

* The following characteristic letter was written at the time by Burr, 
introducing the Mohawk chief to his daughter : — 

" Philadelphia, Feb. 28th, 1797. 
" This will be handed to you by Colonel Brant, the celebrated Indian chief. 
I am sure that you and Natalie* will be happy in the opportunity of seeing a 
man so much renowned. He is a man of education — speaks and writes the 
English perfectly — and has seen much of Europe and America. Receive him 
with respect and hospitality. He is not one of those Indians who drink rum, 
but is quite a gentleman ; not one who will make you fine bows, but one who 
understands and practices what belongs to propriety and good-breeding. He 
has daughters — if you could think of some little present to send to one of them 
(a pair of ear-rings, for example), it would please him. You may talk to him 
very freely, and offer to introduce him to your friend, Mr. Witbecu, at Albany. 
Vale et arma. A. B."f 

f The author of the History of the American Arts of Design. 

* Natalie Delagie, an adopted child of Aaron Burr, born in France, and subsequently 
married to a son of General Sumpter, of South Carolina. 

t Stone's Life of Joseph Brant. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 417 

tume which he deemed most appropriate to his character, 
decorated with his brilliant over-covering and belt, his 
tomahawk and Washington medal.* For the whole 
period of nearly two hours, on four or five successive days, 
he was as punctual to the arrangements of the artist as 
any individual could be. He chose a large arm-chair for 
his convenience, while his interpreter, as well as himself, 
was occupied, for the most part, in surveying the objects 
which decorated the artist's room. He had a party of 
several Senecas with him, who, adopting the horizontal 
position, in different parts of the room, regaled themselves 
with the fumes of tobacco to their utmost gratification. 
Red-Jacket occasionally united in this relaxation ; but 
was so deeply absorbed in attention to the work of the 
painter as to think, perhaps, of no other subject. At 
times he manifested extreme pleasure, as the outlines of 
the picture were filled up. The drawing of his costume, 
which he seemed to prize, as peculiarly appropriate, and 
the distant view of the Falls of Niagara — scenery at no 
great distance from his own residence — forced him to an 
indistinct utterance of his satisfaction. When his medal 
appeared complete in the picture, he addressed his inter- 
preter by striking gestures ; and when his noble front was 
finished, he sprung upon his feet with great alacrity, and, 
seizing the artist by the hand, exclaimed with great 
energy, " Good ! good ! " The painting being finished, he 
parted with Mr. Weir with a satisfaction equal to that 
which he, doubtless, on some occasions, had felt on effect- 
ing an Indian treaty. Red-Jacket must have been beyond 
his seventieth year when the painting was made. He 
exhibited in his countenance somewhat of the traces of 
time and trial on his constitution. Nevertheless, he was 
of a tall and erect form, and walked with a firm gait. His 

* See engraving in the large-paper edition of this work, which is a copy of 
Weir's painting. 
53 



418 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

characteristics are preserved by the artist to admiration ; 
and his majestic front exhibits an attitude surpassing 
every other that I have ever seen of the human skull. As 
a specimen for the craniologist, Red-Jacket need not yield 
his pretensions to those of the most astute philosophers. 
He will long live by the painting of Weir, the poetry of 
Halleck, and the fame of his own deeds.* 

Red- Jacket loved his native forests, and no music was 
to him so sad as the sounds of approaching civilization, 
before which they were destined to fall. Every blow of 
the woodman's ax sent a pang to his heart. The crash of 
a falling tree sounded more painfully upon his ears than 
the jar of an earthquake. The following anecdote will 
illustrate his feelings upon this subject. In the days 
of his youth, he was wont to join the hunters in 
the beautiful valley of the Genesee with great enthusiasm. 
Game was then plenty, and those were, indeed, the fairest 
hunting-grounds he could traverse Toward the close of 
his life, he went thither to indulge once more in the 
chase, where a forest, apparently of considerable extent, 
yet remained. He entered it, recognizing some of his 
ancient friends among the venerable trees, and hoping 
still to find abundant game. But he had not proceeded 
far before he approached an opening, and his course was 
presently impeded by a fence, within the inclosure of 
which one of the pale-faces was engaged in guiding the 
plow. With a heavy heart, he turned in another direc- 
tion, the forest seeming yet to be deep, and where he 
hoped to find a deer, as in the days when he was young. 
But he had not traveled long before another opening 
broke upon his view ; another fence impeded his course, 

* Doctor Francis held many conversations with Red-Jacket, during the lat- 
ter's stay in the city, some of which were upon the subject of the diseases to 
which the Indians were subject. The chief was quite descriptive in his statements 
and seemed sufficiently qualified to make a number of very lair distinctions in 
relation to the subject. — Conversations of Dr. Francis with Col. Wm. L. Stone. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 419 

and another cultivated field appeared within. He sat 
down and wept.* 

In the same year that Red-Jacket visited the city, the 
Merchants' Exchange, in Wall Street (began in 1825), was 
completed. Masonic Hall, opposite the New York Hospi- 
tal, the Arcade, in Maiden Lane, and other buildings of 
more or less interest, were also erected. It has been the 
custom of late years to speak of the changes that have 
taken place in New York city as of recent date. This, 
however, is a mistake. Modern New York begins, in 
reality, about the year 1820, at which time the " march 
of internal improvement " began to level the most inter- 
esting of our city landmarks. Indeed, as late as 1827, 
Exchange Place was Garden Street, Beaver Street was 
Exchange Street, and Hanover Street was unknown. Gar- 
den Street, ending in what is now Hanover Street, was 
connected with Exchange Street and Pearl Street by 
Sloat Lane. This narrow lane was afterward widened 
and extended through to Wall Street, forming Hanover 
Street. The triangular block now bounded by Beaver, 
Pearl, and Hanover, was then bounded on the north hy 
Exchange Street, on the east by a private alley, connect- 
ing the east end of that street with Pearl at a point some 
fifty feet this side of the present junction, on the south by 
Pearl, as now, and on the west by Sloat Lane. Beaver 
Street was subsequently opened through on its present 
line, and the private alley was closed up and built upon. 

In 1829, an old resident of New York, returning to the 
city, after an absence of several years, was so struck with 
the changes which had taken place, both in the 

18 29. 

people and in the buildings, that he gave them to 

the public in two very interesting letters. t The reminis- 

* Related to Colonel W. L. Stone by a Seneca chief. 

f The late Gulian C. Verplanck (under the nom de plume of Francis Her 
bert), in the Talisman, for 1829-183 ). 



420 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

cences contained in them are of great value, as tending to 
preserve that which otherwise must have fallen into obliv- 
ion. New York has, it is true, reached a proud mercan- 
tile position ; but it must not be supposed that, on this 
account, she has no traditions other than those associated 
with trade. To assume this would be as unjust as it is 
untrue. Many memories she has, both of a pleasant and 
a saddening nature ; and while there are many, in this 
intensely practical age, who profess to sneer at everything 
in which they can " see no money," yet there are a few 
from whose hearts all sentiment has not been entirely 
crushed out. It is for the benefit of this latter class that 
we reproduce a portion of the reminiscences here alluded 
to. The writer says : 

" New York is full of old reminiscences. Some are 
consecrated by religious feeling, and some by their con- 
nection with the political destinies of our country. My 
father used to show me, when a boy, the spot on the 
North River, just above the present Barclay-street Ferry, 
where Jonathan Edwards, when temporary pastor of Wall- 
street Church, used to walk backward and forward on the 
solitary pebbly shore, sounding the depths of his own con- 
science, and drawing ' sweet consolation ' from the religion 
which he taught. Here he ruminated on the mysteries 
of eternal preordination and free-will, w r hile fell upon his 
ear the murmurs of that ocean which is the symbol of 
eternity and power, and whose motions are controlled, like 
the events of our own lives, by the word and will of the 
Most High. Then, likewise, he showed me the little 
church, back to the site of the present Methodist Chapel, 
in John Street, where Whitfield, as my father expressed 
it, used to ' preach like a lion,' with a searching power 
that made the sinner quail, and shook and broke the infi- 
del's stony heart. It was in Wall Street that the apos- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 421 

tolic Tennant lifted up his melodious voice, and sounded 
the silver trumpet of the Gospel. 

" On the site of the present Custom-house,* where the 
commerce of the world pays its tribute to the great treasury 
of the nation, stood the old City Hall, commanding a view 
of the wide and winding avenue of Broad Street. Here, 
in a species of balcony, in the second story of the build- 
ing, such as the Italians call a loggia, mean in its materials 
of wood and brick, but splendid in the taste and propor- 
tions given to it by the architect L'Enfant, the inaugura- 
tion oath of the chief magistracy of the Union was 
administered by Chancellor Livingston to Washington, 
the first of our Presidents. In front of the building; an 
innumerable and silent crowd of citizens, intently gazing 
on the august ceremony, thronged the spacious street, 
and filled Wall Street from William Street to Broad- 
way. Behind the President elect stood a group of the illus- 
trious fathers of the nation — Hamilton and Knox, and the 
elder Adams, and the venerable and learned and eloquent 
Johnson, and Ellsworth and Sherman of Connecticut, and 
Clinton and Chief- Justice Morris and Duane of New York, 
and Boudinot of New Jersey, and Rutledge of South Caro- 
lina, and less conspicuous in person, though among the 
foremost in fame, the Virginian, Madison. There, too, 
stood the most revered of the clergy of New York, the 
venerable Dr. Rodgers, of the Presbyterian Church ; the 
wise and mild and suasive Dr. Moore, of the Episcopal ; 
the dignified and eloquent Dr. Livingston, of the Dutch ; 
and the learned Dr. Kunze and the patriotic Dr. Grose, of 
the German churches. Back of these stood younger men, 
since scarcely less illustrious than the elder statesmen I 
have mentioned — Ames, and Cabot, and Gouverneur Mor- 
ris, majestic and graceful in spite of his wooden leg. But 

* Now the Sub-Treasury. 



422 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

why should I attempt to describe this great occasion by 
words ? I lately looked over the portfolio of my friend 
Dunlap, and found, among many other fine things, sketches 
which present this scene vividly to the eye, with the fea- 
tures of the great men who figured in it, and their costumes 
and attitudes, such as he himself beheld them. I wish 
somebody would employ him to paint a noble picture, 
such as he is capable of producing, on this magnificent 
subject. The pride of a New-Yorker, the feelings of a 
patriot, the ambition of an artist, and the recollections of 
this interesting ceremony, which still live in his memory, 
would stimulate him to do it ample justice. 

" Cedar Street, since that day, has declined from its 
ancient consequence. I had the pleasure of seeing Mr. 
Jefferson in an old two-story house in that street, unbend- 
ing himself in the society of the learned and polite from 
the labors of the bureau. And there was Talleyrand, whom 
I used to meet at the houses of General Hamilton and of 
Noah Webster, with his club-foot and passionless, immov- 
able countenance, sarcastic and malicious even in his 
intercourse with children. He was disposed to amuse 
himself with gallantry, too. But who does not know, or 
rather, who ever did know, Talleyrand 1 About the same 
time I met with Priestley, grave and placid in his man- 
ners, with a slight difficulty of utterance ; dry, polite, 
learned, and instructive in his conversation. At a period 
somewhat later, I saw here the deputy Billaud de Var- 
ennes, who had swayed the blood-thirsty mob of the 
Faubourg St. Antoine, turned the torrent of the multitude 
into the hall of the Legislative Assembly, and reanimated 
France to a bolder and more vigorous resistance against 
her foreign enemies. I visited him in the garret of a poor 
tavern in the upper part of William Street, where he lived 
in obscurity. But why particularize further ? We have 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 423 

had savans, litterateurs, and politicians by the score, all men 
of note, some good and some bad, and most of whom cer- 
tainly thought that they attracted more attention than 
they did, — Volney and Cobbett and Tom Moore, and the 
two Michaux, and the Abbe Correa, and Jeffrey, and 
others ; the muster-roll of whose names I might call over, 
if I had the memory of Baron Trenck, and my readers the 
taste of a catalogue-making librarian. Have we not 
jostled ex-kings and ex-empresses and ex-nobles in Broad- 
way? trod on the toes of exotic naturalists, Waterloo 
marshals, and great foreign academicians at the parties 
of young ladies 1 and seen more heroes and generals all 
over town than would fill a new Iliad ? 

"Pensive memory turns to other worthies no less illus- 
trious in their way. There were Billy the Fiddler and his 
wife, whom no one having seen, could ever forget, and no 
one who had music in his soul remember without regret- 
ting that such a fiddle should ever have been hung up. 
Billy had been a favorite of Mozart, at Vienna, and used 
to say that he had composed one (I forget which) of his 
six celebrated sonatas ; though I believe he drew rather 
too long a bow when he made this statement, He was 
about four feet six inches in height, with a foot as long as a 
fourth of his stature. His head was not disproportionate, 
as those of dwarfs usually are ; but he had their charac- 
teristic petulence ; and the irritability of his temper was 
certainly not improved by the enforced attendance of a 
retinue of idle boj-s, who always formed his suite when he 
walked forth in the streets. His wife was a suitable com- 
panion for him as to personal appearance and height ; and 
it seemed, on looking at the couple, to be not at all won- 
derful how the Germans came by their wild and droll con- 
ceptions of goblins and elves. But I never heard of any 
other magic practiced by Billy, except that the sweet and 
enlivening strains of his violin made the young masters 



424 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

and misses, at whose juvenile parties he officiated, dance 
off the soles of their shoes and stockings ; and that they 
would have begun upon their tender skins if they had not 
been discreetly carried home. 

" There was also the family of the Hewletts (which, 
from tradition or observation, I may say I know for four 
generations), contemporaries of the successive Vestrises. 
Indeed, according to the family record, the first Hewlett 
was a pupil of the first Vestris, and a favorite disciple of 
that great master ; who only complained that he was not 
sufficiently leger in his ascents, nor quite de plomb enough 
in his descents ; but certified, that, for grace, agility, and 
science, he was the prince of his Sieves. The opinions of 
those educated under the successive dynasties of these 
masters of aerial gymnastics, as fashion controlled both 
teachers and scholars, ' and as longer puffs and louder 
fiddles ' brought other professors of the graces of motion 
forward, varied as to the distinctive characteristics of their 
several excellencies ; still, the Hewletts kept their ground. 
They outlived the Revolution of Seventy-six; — Trinity 
Church was pulled down, the Governor's Court fled from 
the Battery, but they kept the field, like the trumpeters 
of chivalry. They taught dancing to the belles, who cap- 
tivated the members of the first Congress ; and tried to 
teach some of the members themselves. Then came the 
horrible French Revolution ; and in that terrible storm, 
which overthrew the landmarks of the Old World, new 
manners and new teachers were drifted on our shores, and 
the Hewletts went out of vogue. There must be few who 
have dwelt in this now all-be-metamorphosed city, even for 
six years past, who have not had occasion to observe the 
dapper legs and silken hose of the last of this line. But they 
will be seen no more. David Hewlett is dead ! and, as he 
trod lightly upon the earth, may the earth lie lightly on 
him He was a gentleman, every inch of him. He 



HISTORY OP NEW YORK CITY. 425 

was the last of the anti-Revolutionary dancing-masters ; 
a kind, good, humble man. At St. Paul's I always found 
him repeating the service with a formality which was the 
result of decorous habit, and a fervor Avhich could only 
have come warm from the heart Again I say, light be the 
earth above him ! and he must have a stern, hard heart 
who can scoff at my honest tribute to the memory of my 
old dancing-master. 

" My reminiscences of New York, or rather the people 
that have been in it, come before my mind in pretty much 
the same order that 'jewels and shells, sea-weed, and 
straw,' are raked by ' old father Time from the ocean of 
the past,' according to Milton or Bacon, or some other 
ancient writer of eminence. I had an uncle, who was a 
prudent man in all his transactions ; and who, from patri- 
otic considerations, waited for the development of events 
before he took any part in the Revolutionary War. He 
had many of what might be called Tory recollections of 
that period. He knew the Duke of Clarence, when he 
came here as a midshipman ; skated with him on the Col- 
lect, where now stand the arsenal and the gas-manufac- 
tory,* and helped out of the ice him who is now official 
head of the English navy, and who may probably wield 
ere long the scepter of the British Empire. In walking 
along Broadway, he has often pointed out to me the small 
corner-room in the second story in the house in Wall 
Street, opposite Grace Church, then and long after occu- 
pied by Dr. Tillary, a Scotchman (formerly a surgeon and 
afterward an eminent physician), and told me how he 
used, at the period referred to, to eat oysters there, in the 
American fashion, with his Royal Highness, who preferred 
them to the copper-flavored productions of the British 
Channel. 

"Pine Street is now full of blocks of tall, massive 

* The present vicinity of the Tombs. 
54 



426 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CIT1 

buildings, which overshadow the narrow passage between, 
and make it one of the gloomiest streets in New York. 
The very bricks there look of a darker hue than in any 
other part of the city ; the rays of the sun seem to come 
through a yellower and thicker atmosphere ; and the 
shadows thrown there by moonlight seem of a blacker 
and more solid darkness than elsewhere. The sober occu- 
pations of the inhabitants also, who are learned members 
of the bar, nearest Broadway, and calculating wholesale 
merchants as you approach the East River, inspire you 
with ideas of sedateness and gravity as you walk through 
it. It was not thus thirty or forty years ago. Shops were 
on each side of the way — low, cheerful-looking, two-story 
buildings, of light-colored brick or wood, painted white or 
yellow, and which scarcely seemed a hindrance to the air 
and sunshine. Among these stood the shop of Auguste 
Louis de Singeron, celebrated for the neatness and quality 
of its confectionery and pastry, and for the singular man- 
ners of its keeper, who was at once the politest and most 
passionate of men. He was a French emigrant, a courtier, 
and a warrior ; a man of diminutive size, but of a most 
chivalrous, courteous, and undaunted spirit. He might be 
about five feet two inches in height ; his broad shoulders 
overshadowed a pair of legs under the common size ; his 
fiery-red hair was tied into a club behind, and combed 
fiercely up in front ; the upper part of his cheek-bones, 
the tip of his nose, and the peak of his chin, were tinged 
with a bright scarlet ; his voice was an exaggeration of 
the usual sharp tones of his nation, and his walk was that 
of a man who walks for a wager. He was the younger 
son of a noble family ; and, having a commission in the 
French army, was one of the officers who defended the 
Tuileries on the melancholy night of the 10th of August, 
1792, when the palace streamed with blood, and the devoted 
adherents of the king were bayoneted in the corridors, or 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 427 

escaped only to be proscribed and hunted down like 
wolves. Auguste de Singeron made his way to L'Orient, 
took passage to the United States, and landed at New 
York without a penny in his pocket. His whole inven- 
tory consisted of a cocked hat, a rusty suit of black, a cane, 
a small-sword, a white pocket-handkerchief, and shirts, if 
I am justified in speaking of them in the plural, the exact 
number of which cannot now be known, as he never chose 
to reveal it, but looked as if they had never been brought 
acquainted with the nymphs of the fountains. He at first 
betook himself to the usual expedient of teaching French 
for a livelihood ; but it would not do. He lost all patience 
at correcting, for the twentieth time, the same blunder in 
the same pupil ; he showed no mercy to an indelicate 
coupling of different genders ; and fell upon a false tense 
with as much impetuosity as he had once rushed upon the 
battery of an enemy. But if he got into a passion sud- 
denly, he got out of it as soon. His starts of irritation 
were succeeded by most vehement fits of politeness ; he 
poured forth apologies with so much volubility, and so 
many bows, and pressed his explanation with so much 
earnestness and vigor, and such unintelligible precipita- 
tion, that his pupils became giddy with the noise, and, at 
the end of his lesson, were more perplexed than ever. In 
short, to apply the boast of a celebrated modern instructor, 
his disciples were so well satisfied with their progress, that 
they declined taking lessons a second quarter, and the 
poor Frenchman was obliged to think of some other way 
of getting a living. But what should it be 1 He had no 
capital, and scarcely any friends. Should he become a bar- 
ber, a shoe-black, a cook, a fencing-master, a dentist, or a 
dancing-master 1 Either of these occupations was better 
than to beg, to starve, or to steal, and the French nobility 
have figured in them all. The flexibility of the national 
character adapts itself in mature age to any situation in 



428 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

life with the same ease that people of other nations 
accommodate themselves to that in which they were born. 
French marquises have sweltered in the kitchens of Eng- 
lish private gentlemen, in greasy caps and aprons ; French 
counts have given the polish to the nether extremities of 
the stately dons of Madrid ; and French dukes have taken 
German ones by the nose. The graceful courtiers, who 
led down the dance the high-born dames of France, have 
exhausted themselves in the vain effort to teach Yorkshire- 
men to shuffle cotillions ; the officers of his Most Christian 
Majesty's household have drawn teeth for cockneys ; and 
the chevaliers of the Order of St. Louis have given lessons 
in the use of the broadsword to men who afterward figured 
as Yankee corporals. In the midst of his perplexity, a 
mere accident determined the future career of Monsieur 
de Singeron. He had politely undertaken to assist in the 
manufacture of some molasses-candy for a little boy, the 
son of his host ; and, after a process attended with some 
vexations, during which the lad thought, two or three 
times, that his French acquaintance would swallow him 
alive, he produced the article in such delicious and melt- 
ing perfection, that his fame was quickly spread abroad 
among the boys of the neighborhood as an artist of incom- 
parable merit. He took the hint, got his landlord to 
assist him with a small credit, turned pastry-cook and 
confectioner, set up at first in a small way, enlarged his 
business as he got customers, and finally took a handsome 
shop in the street I have mentioned. The French have 
as great a talent for comfits as for compliments ; and the 
genius that shines in the invention of an agreeable flat- 
tery displays itself to no less advantage in the manufac- 
ture of a sugar-plum. Auguste Louis de Singeron was 
no vulgar imitator of his clumsy English and Dutch 
brethren in the art. I speak not of the splendor of his 
crystallizations, of the brilliant frost-work of his plum- 



HISTORY OP NEW YORK CITY. 429 

cakes, nor of the tempting arrangement he knew how to 
give to his whole stock of wares, though these were admi- 
rable. But the gilt gingerbread I used to buy of him — 
instead of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba — was 
graced with the stately figures of Louis XVI and Marie 
Antoinette ; the queen standing bolt-upright — as became 
the conqueror of hearts and the mistress of the finest king- 
dom in the world — and the monarch holding her hand, with 
a delicate inclination of his royal body, as if acknowledging 
the empire of beauty. He, I believe, first introduced the. 
practice of stamping the New-year's cake with figures of 
Cupids among roses, and hearts transfixed by an arrow in 
honor of la belle passion. His marchpane bore an impress 
of the facade of the Tuileries, with its pilasters, columns, 
and carvings ; and his blanc-mange was adorned with a 
bas-relief of warriors in bag-wigs and cocked hats, tilting 
fiercely at each other on its quivering and glancing surface. 
" I shall never forget the courtly and high-bred civility 
with which M. de Singeron used to welcome me to his 
shop, and bow me out of it. I have since seen the nobles 
of the court of Marie Antoinette, and was no longer at a 
loss to account for the graceful manners of my old friend, 
the confectioner. It was not, however, quite safe to pre- 
sume too much upon his forbearance, for he knew no 
medium between the most violent irritation and the most 
florid politeness. He had no patience with these people who 
stood in his door on a keen windy day, and would neither 
come in nor go out. They always got from him a hearty 
curse in French, followed, as soon as he could recollect 
himself, by something civil in English. ' Peste soil de la 
bete, 7 he used to say, £ fermez done la — I beg pardon, sare, 
but if you vill shut de door, you shall merit my eternal 
gratitude ! ' The fellows who went about the streets cry- 
ing ' good oysters,' and ' fine Rockaway clams,' avoided his 
ill-omened door in the winter months, taught by bitter 



430 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

experience, and sundry ungracious and unexpected raps 
on the knuckles. He at first tried the plan of making 
them come in, shut the door, and deliver their errand, and 
then sending them about their business. This not suc- 
ceeding, he tried the shining old lignum-vitse cane, with 
which he used to promenade in the gardens of the Tuileries, 
and with much better effect. On one occasion, however, he 
happened to. bestow it rather rudely upon the nasal organ 
of a sailor. The fellow's proboscis was originally of most 
unnatural and portentous dimensions ; it swelled terribly 
from the effect of the blow ; and, meeting with a pettifog- 
ger, who told him it was a good case for damages, he 
brought an action against the confectioner. Monsieur de 
Singeron in vain offered an apology and a plaster of bank- 
notes ; the sailor was inexorable, and insisted on produc- 
ing his injured member before the seat of justice. He did 
so, but unluckily the effect on the jury was rather ludi- 
crous than pathetic, and the impression it made was 
against the plaintiff, who got only ten shillings by his 
suit. M. de Singeron thought it was not enough, and gave 
the fellow a five-dollar note besides, which he had the 
meanness to accept, though I believe he blushed as he 
did it. 

" Monsieur de Singeron afterward sold cakes and con- 
fectionery in William Street, and then in Broadway, and 
finally was one of that joyful troop of returning exiles that 
flocked back to France on the restoration of the Bourbons. 
He was provided for by being made a colonel of cuiras- 
siers, and in the decline of his life his gallant and courte- 
ous spirit was no longer obliged to struggle with the 
hardships and scorns of poverty. I have lately heard, 
though indirectly, so that I cannot vouch for the fact, that 
he has been promoted to be one of the marshals of France. 

" There was another Frenchman of distinction, also of 
the old school of French manners, but less fortunate than 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 43] 

Monsieur de Singeron, and who used daily to take his soli- 
tary walk through Broadway. I allude to Admiral Pierre 
de Landais, a cadet of the family of a younger' son of the 
youngest branch of one of the oldest, proudest, and poor- 
est families in Normandy. He had regularly studied in 
the ficole de la Marine, and was thoroughly instructed in 
the mathematical theories of sailing and building a ship, 
although, like the rest of his countrymen, he always found 
some unexpected difficulty in applying his theory to prac- 
tice. For a Frenchman, however, he was a good sailor ; 
but, in consequence of his grandfather having exhausted 
his patrimony in a splendid exhibition of fire-works for 
the entertainment of Madame de Pompadour, he had nei- 
ther interest at court nor money to purchase court favor. 
He was therefore kept in the situation of an aspirant, or 
midshipman, until he was thirty-two years old, and was 
kept, I know not how many years more, in the humble 
rank of sous-lieutenant. He served his country faithfully, 
and with great good-will, until, in the beginning of the 
reign of Louis XV [, a page of the mistress of the Count 
de Vergennes came down to Cherbourg to be his captain. 
While he was boiling with indignation at this affront, the 
war between England and America broke out, and he 
seized that opportunity to enter the service of the United 
States. There he at once rose to the command of a fine 
frigate, and the title of admiral. Soon afterward came 
the brilliant affair of the Serapis and the Bon Homme Rich- 
ard, in which Paul Jones, by his impetuous and undisci- 
plined gallantry, earned the reputation of a hero, and poor 
Landais, by a too scrupulous attention to the theory of 
naval science, incurred that of a coward. I believe that 
naval authority is against me ; but I venture to assert, 
meo periculo, and on the authority of one of my uncles, who 
was in that action as a lieutenant to Paul Jones, that 
Landais erred, not through any defect of bravery, bat 



432 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

merely from his desire to approach his enemy scientific- 
ally, by bearing down upon the hypotenuse of the precise 
right-angled triangle prescribed in the thirty-seventh ' ma- 
noeuvre'' of his old text-book. 

" The naval committee of Congress, unfortunately, 
understood neither mathematics nor French ; they could 
not comprehend Landais' explanation, and he was thrown 
out of service. After his disgrace, he constantly resided 
in the city of New York, except that he always made a 
biennial visit to the seat of Government, whether at Phil- 
adelphia or at Washington, to present a memorial respect- 
ing the injustice done him, and to claim restitution to his 
rank and the arrears of his pay. An unexpected dividend 
of prize-money, earned at the beginning of the Revolution- 
ary War, and paid in 1790, gave him an annuity of one 
hundred and four dollars, or rather, as I think, a hundred 
and five ; for I remember his telling me that he had two 
dollars a week on which to subsist, and an odd dollar for 
charity at the end of the year. 

"Although Congress, under the new Constitution, con- 
tinued as obdurate and as impenetrable to explanation as 
they were in the time of the Confederation, the admiral 
kept up to the last the habits and exterior of a gentleman. 
His linen, though not very fine, nor probably very whole, 
was always clean ; his coat threadbare, but scrupulously 
brushed ; and, for occasions of ceremonious visiting, he 
had a pair of paste knee-buckles and faded yellow silk 
stockings with red clocks. He wore the American cock- 
ade to the last ; and on the Fourth of July, the Day of St. 
Louis, and the anniversary of the day on which the Brit- 
ish troops evacuated the city of New York, he periodically 
mounted his old Continental navy uniform, although its 
big brass buttons had lost their splendor, and the skirts of 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 433 

the coat, which wrapped his shrunken person like a cloak, 
touched his heels in walking, while the sleeves, by some 
contradictory process, had receded several inches from the 
wrists. He subsisted with the utmost independence on 
his scanty income, refusing all presents, even the most 
trifling ; and when my naval uncle, on one occasion, sent 
him a dozen of Newark cider, as a small mark of his rec- 
ollection of certain hospitalities at the admiral's table 
when in command, while he himself was but a poor lieu- 
tenant, Landais peremptorily refused them, as a present 
he could not receive, because it was not in his power to 
reciprocate. 

M, JL, JL, .tt. JjL. JJ, JlU 

11 He was a man of the most punctilious and chivalric 
honor, and at the same time full of that instinctive kind- 
ness of heart and that nice sense of propriety which 
shrink from doing a rude thing to anybody on any 
occasion. Even when he met his bitterest enemy, as he 
did, shortly after he came to New York, the man whose 
accusation had destroyed his reputation and blighted his 
prospects, whose injuries he had for years brooded over, 
and whom he determined to insult and punish whenever 
he fell in with him, he 'could not bring himself to offer 
him an insult unbecoming a gentleman, but, deliberately 
spitting on the pavement, desired his adversary to con- 
sider that pavement as his own face, and to proceed 
accordingly. 

" Thus, in proud, solitary, and honorable poverty, lived 
Pierre de Landais for some forty years, until, to use the 
language of his own epitaph, in the eighty-seventh year 
of his age, he ' disappeared ' from life. As he left no 
property behind him, and had no relations and scarcely 
any acqaintances in the country, it has always been a mat- 
ter of mystery to me who erected his monument — a plain 
white marble slab, which stands in the church-yard of St. 
55 



434 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Patrick's Cathedral, in New York, and on which is read 
the following characteristic inscription : 




A LA MEMOIRE 

de 

PIERRE DE LANDAIS, 

ANCIEN CONTRE-AMIRAL. 

au service 
DES ETATS-UNIS, 

Qui Disparut 

Juin 1818, 
Ag6 87 aus. 

" Who would suppose that the exploded science of 
alchemy had ever its professors in the United States, 
where the easy transmutation of the soil of the wilderness 
into rich possessions renders unnecessary the art of .con- 
verting dross into gold 1 Yet such is the fact. Every- 
body who has been a frequent walker of Broadway, in any 
or all of the forty years preceding the last five, must 
recollect often meeting a man whom at first he might not 
have particularly noticed, but whose constant appearance 
in the same part of the street at the same hour of the 
day, and the peculiarities of whose dress and person, must 
at length have compelled attention. He was a plump- 
looking man, somewhat under the middle size, with well- 
spread shoulders, a large chest, a fair, fresh complexion, a 
clear but dreamy eye, and a short, quick stride, and had 
altogether the signs of that fullness of habit which arises 
from regular exercise and a good appetite, while a certain 
ascetic expression of countenance at once forbade the idea 
that it owed anything to festivity or good cheer. His 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 435 

age, which never appeared to vary, might, from his looks, 
be estimated at five years, on the one side or other, of 
fifty. His dress was that of an old-fashioned, respectable 
citizen, educated before the age of suspenders, pantaloons, 
and boots, and who had never been persuaded to counte- 
nance those innovations of modern effeminacy. Notwith- 
standing its obsolete cut, it showed no signs of poverty, 
except, perhaps, to those, and those only, who occasionally 
met him sweltering, with a laudable contempt for the 
weather, in a full suit of thick Prussian blue, or Dutch 
black broadcloth, in a hot August day ; or striding through 
a snow-storm in nankeen breeches and white cotton stock- 
ings in December. His name was Jan Max-Lichenstein ; 
he was a Pomeranian by birth, who, early in life, going to 
Amsterdam to seek his fortune, became employed as a 
clerk in the great Dutch banking and commercial house of 
Hope & Co., where he proved himself a good accountant, 
and rendered himself useful in their German and Swedish 
correspondence. 

'• Afterward, by some accident or other, he found him- 
self an adventurer at St. Petersburg. What led him to 
that city I cannot say ; I have never heard it accounted 
for among his acquaintances in this city ; at Amsterdam 
I forgot to inquire, and St. Petersburg I have never visited. 
But thither he went ; and, having the good fortune to 
become known to Prince Potemkin, received an employ- 
ment in his household, and finally came to be intrusted 
with the management of his finances. The prince, as 
everybody knows, like many others who have millions to 
dispose of, had constantly occasion for millions more ; and, 
as everybody also ought to know who knows anything of 
his private histor} r , when his funds were so reduced that 
he had nothing left but a few millions of acres and a few 
thousand serfs, took most furiously to gambling ami 
tilchemy. These liberal employments were divided be- 



• 



436 " i 8 to i; v of n e w v orb citi 

tween 1*1 ill and his treasurer. The prince rattled the 
dice-box in the gilded saloons of Tzarzko Zelo; and the 
Pomeranian, in spile of his remonstrances and his own 
better judgment, was set to compounding the alkahest, or 
universal menstruum, in the vaults under the north wing 
of Potemkin's winter palace. We soon jjjet attached to 
the studies in which we are obliged to employ ourselves, 
and Lichenstein gradually found his incredulity yielding, 
and a strange interest stealing over him, as he read the 
books, and sweltered and watched over the operations of 
alchemy. The result was, that at length he became a 
believer in the mysteries of imbibition, solution, ablution, 
sublimation, cohabation, calcination, ceration, and fixation, 
and all the martyrizations of metals, with the sublime 
influences of the Trine Circle of the Seven Spheres. 
" Lichenstein, however, with all his diligence and 

increase of faith, could neither coin gold nor gel it <>ul of 
the prince's tenants in such quantities as it was wanted, 
and he was now destined to learn how much the favor of 
the great depends upon the state of their stomachs. One 
morning Potemkin, after a run of had Luck, plenty of good 
champagne, a, sleepless night, and an indigestible breakfast 
of raw turnips and quass, called upon him for an extraor- 
dinary sum, and, not finding if easily furnished. Hew into 
a, passion and discharged him on the spot. As the prince 

never paidanj debts but those of honor, Lichenstein knew 
that it would be in vain to ask for his salary, and walked 
into the streets without, a penny in his pocket. The late 
Chief-Justice Dana, of Massachusetts, then our Minister 
at the Court of St. Petersburg, was about to return to 
America-. Lichenstein had heard the most flattering 
accounts of the prospects held oaf in the United Slates to 
active and intelligent adventurers from the Old World 
and readily believed all lie heard, which, for a believer in 
alchemy, was no great stretch of credulity lie had some 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 437 

little acquaintance with the American Minister, in conse- 
quence of once or twice negotiating for him small bills on 
the bankers of the United States at Amsterdam. He 
threw himself upon his generosity, and requested a passage 
to this country — a favor which was readily granted. Here 
he was fortunate enough, almost immediately on his ar- 
rival, to be employed in the first mercantile house in New 
York, to answer their Dutch, German, and Northern cor- 
respondence, with a salary which, though not half so large 
as that allowed by Prince Potemkin, he liked twice as 
well, because it was regularly paid. He had scarcely 
become well settled in New York, when his old dream of 
alchemy returned upon him. He carefully hoarded his 
earnings until he was enabled to purchase, at a cheap rate, 
a small tenement in Wall Street, where he erected a fur- 
nace with a triple chimney, and renewed his search of the 
arcanum magnum. Every day, in the morning, he was 
occupied for two hours in the counting-room ; then he was 
seen walking in Broadway ; then he shut himself in his 
laboratory until the dusk of the evening, when he issued 
forth to resume his solitary walk. 

" Year after year passed in this manner. Wall Street, 
in the meantime, was changing its inhabitants ; its burgh- 
ers gave way to banks and brokers ; the city extended its 
limits, and the streets became thronged with increasing 
multitudes — circumstances of which the alchemist took 
no note, except that he could not help observing that he 
was obliged to take a longer walk than formerly to get 
into the country, and that the rows of lamps on each side 
oi* Broadway seemed to have lengthened wonderfully 
toward the north; but whether this was owing to the 
advance of old age, which made his walk more fatiguing, 
or to some other unknown cause, was a problem which I 
believe he never fully solved to his own satisfaction. 

"Still, the secret of making gold seemed as distant as 



438 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

ever, until it presented itself to him in an unexpected 
shape. His lot in Wall Street, which measured twenty 
eight feet in front and eighty-seven in depth, and for which 
he had paid three hundred and fifty pounds in New York 
currency, had become a desirable site for a newly-char- 
tered banking company. One day Lichenstein was called 
by the president of this company from his furnace, as he 
was pouring rectified water on the salt of Mercury. He 
felt somewhat crusty at the interruption, as he hoped, by 
reverberating the ingredients in an athanor, to set the 
liquor of Mars in circulation ; but when this person had 
opened to him his errand, and offered him twenty-five 
thousand dollars for the purchase of his lot, his ill-humor 
was converted into surprise. Had he been offered five 
thousand, he would have accepted it immediately ; but 
twenty-five thousand ! the amount startled him. He took 
time to consider of the proposition, and the next morning 
was offered thirty thousand by a rival company. He must 
think of this also, and before night he sold to the first 
company for thirty-three thousand. He was now pos- 
sessed of a competency ; he quitted his old vocation of 
clerk, abandoned his old walk in Broadway, and, like Ad- 
miral Landais, ' disappeared,' but not, I believe, like him, 
to another life. I have heard that his furnace has again 
been seen smoking behind a comfortable German stone 
house in the comfortable borough of Easton — a residence 
which he chose, not merely on account of its cheapness 
of living, nor its picturesque situation, but chiefly, I believe, 
for its neighborhood to Bethlehem, where dwelt a Mora- 
vian friend of his, attached to the same mysterious studies, 
and for its nearness to the inexhaustible coal-mines of 
Lehigh. 

"As I write, my recollections of the past, both ludi- 
crous and melancholy, crowd upon me. I might amuse 
my readers with a history of the ' Doctors' Mob,' which 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 439 

happened some forty years ago, when the multitude, indig- 
nant with the physicians and surgeons for having, as was 
supposed, violated the repose of the dead, besieged them 
in their dwellings, with an intention to inflict justice upon 
them according to their own summary notions, obliging 
them to slip out at windows, creep behind beer-barrels, 
crawl up chimneys, and get beneath feather-beds ; and 
when the grave gentlemen of the healing art were fed in 
dark places, like hunted rebels or persecuted prophets, for 
three days and three nights. I might give my readers a 
peep into the little dark room in Pine Street, where Brown 
used to frame his gloomy and interesting fictions without 
any aid from the picturesque, and entangle his heroes in 
one difficulty after another, without knowing how he 
should extricate them. I might show residing in that 
part of Pearl Street now enlarged into Hanover Square, 
but then a dark and narrow passage, the famous General 
Moreau, who, when told that the street was not fashiona- 
ble, replied that he ' lived in de house, and not in de 
street ' — a conceited grammarian, talking absurdly of that 
science, and magnifying his supposed discovery of three 
thousand new adverbs, but otherwise gentlemanly, intelli- 
gent, and agreeable, and fortunate in his beautiful and 
accomplished wife. When I spoke of great men, I might 
touch upon the tragic and untimely end of one of our 
greatest — Hamilton — brought over from the fatal spot 
where he fell to expire in the hospitable mansion of Mr. 
Bayard, on the green shore of the Hudson. I well recol- 
lect the day of his death, a fine day in July ; and the 
bright sunshine, the smiling beauty of the spot, the cheer- 
ful sound of birds and rustling boughs, and the twinkling 
waters of the river, contrasted strangely and unnaturally 
with the horror-struck countenances and death-like silence 
of the great multitude that gathered rouud the dwelling. 
I will not attempt to describe the scene. 



440 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

" In this city especially, it is of more importance to 
preserve the recollection of these things, since here the 
progress of continual alteration is so rapid, that a few 
years effect what in Europe is the work of centuries, and 
sweep away both the memory and the external vestiges 
of the generation that precedes us. 

" I was forcibly struck with this last reflection, when 
not long since I took a walk with my friend, Mr. De Vielle- 
cour, during his last visit to New York, over what I recol- 
lected as the play-ground of myself and my companions 
in the time of my boyhood, and what Mr. De Viellecour 
remembered as the spot where his contemporaries at an 
early period used to shoot quails and woodcocks. We 
passed over a part of the city which in my time had been 
hills, hollows, marshes, and rivulets, without having 
observed anything to awaken in either of us a recollection 
of what the place was before the surface had been leveled 
and the houses erected, until, arriving at the corner of 
Charlton and Varick Streets, we came to an edifice utterly 
dissimilar to anything around it.* It was a wooden build- 
ing of massive architecture, with a lofty portico supported 
by Ionic columns, the front walls decorated with pilasters 
of the same order, and its whole appearance distinguished 
by that Palladian character of rich though sober orna- 
ment, which indicated that it had been built about the 
middle of the last century. We both stopped involun- 
tarily, and at the same moment, before it. 

'"If I did not see that house on a flat plain,' said Mr. 
De Viellecour, ' penned in by this little gravelly court- 
yard, and surrounded by these starveling catalpas and 
horse-chestnuts, I should say at once that it was a man- 
sion which I very well remember, where in my youth I 
passed many pleasant hours in the society of its hospita- 

* Richmond Hill, formerly Burr's residence. See Appendix No. II. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 441 

ble owner, and where, afterward, when I had the honor of 
representing my country in the Assembly, which then sat 
in New York, I had the pleasure of dining officially with 
Vice-President Adams. That house resembled this ex- 
actly ; but then it was upon a noble hill, several hundred 
feet in height, commanding a view of the river and of the 
Jersey shore. There was a fine, rich lawn around it, 
shaded by large and venerable oaks and lindens, and skirted 
on every side by a young but thrifty natural wood of an 
hundred acres or more.' 

" Perceiving it to be a house of public entertainment, I 
proposed to Mr. Viellecour that we should enter it. We 
went into a spacious hall, with a small room on each side 
opening to more spacious apartments beyond. ' Yes,' said 
Mr. Viellecour, ' this is certainly the house I spoke of.' 
He immediately, with the air of a man accustomed to the 
building, opened a side-door on the right, and began to 
ascend a wide staircase with a heavy mahogany railing. 
It conducted us to a large room on the second story, with 
wide Venetian windows in front, and a door opening to a 
balcony under the portico. ' Yes,' said my friend, ' here 
was the dining room. There, in the center of the table, 
sat Vice-President Adams in full dress, with his bag and 
solitaire, his hair frizzed out each side of his face, as you 
see it in Stuart's older pictures of him. On his right sat 
Baron Steuben, our royalist republican disciplinarian gen- 
eral. On his left was Mr. Jefferson, who had just returned 
from France, conspicuous in his red waistcoat and breeches, 
the fashion of Versailles. Opposite sat Mrs. Adams, with 
her cheerful, intelligent face. She was placed between the 
courtly Count Du Moustiers, the French embassador, in 
his red-heeled shoes and ear-rings, and the grave, polite, 
and formally-bowing Mr. Van Birkel, the learned and able 
envoy of Holland. There, too, was Chancellor Living- 
ston, then still in the prime of life, so deaf as to make 

56 



442 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

conversation with him difficult, yet so overflowing with 
wit, eloquence, and information, that while listening to 
him the difficulty was forgotten. The rest were members 
of Congress and of our Legislature, some of them no 
inconsiderable men. 

" ' Being able to talk French — a rare accomplishment 
in America at that time — a place was assigned to me next 
the count. The dinner was served up after the fashion of 
that day, abundant, and, as was then thought, splendid. 
Du Moustiers, after taking a little soup, kept an empty 
plate before him, took now and then a crumb of bread into 
his mouth, and declined all the luxuries of the table that 
were pressed upon him, from the roast-beef down to the 
lobsters. We were all in perplexity to know how the 
count could dine, when at length his own body-cook, in a 
clean, white linen cap, a clean, white tablier before him, a 
brilliantly white damask serviette flung over his arm, and 
a warm pie of truffles and game in his hand, came brust- 
ling eagerly through the crowd of waiters, and placed it 
before the count, who, reserving a moderate share to him- 
self, distributed the rest among his neighbors, of whom 
being one, I can attest to the truth of the story, and the 
excellence of the pate. But come, let us go and look at 
the fine view from the balcony.' 

" My friend stepped out at the door, and I followed him. 
The worthy old gentleman seemed much disappointed at 
finding the view he spoke of confined to the opposite side 
of Varick Street, built up with two-story brick houses, 
while a half-a-dozen ragged boys were playing marbles on 
the sidewalks. ' Well,' said he, ' the view is gone, that is 
clear enough ; but I cannot, for my part, understand how 
the house has got so much lower than formerly.' 

" I explained to my friend the omnipotence of the Cor- 
poration, by which every high hill has been brought low, 
and every valley exalted, and by which I presumed this 



HISTORY OF NEW FORK CITY. 443 

house had been abased to a level with its humbler neigh- 
bors, the hill on which it stood having been literally dug 
away from under it, and the house gently let down, with- 
out disturbing its furniture, by the mechanical genius and 
dexterity of some of our Eastern brethren. 

" ' This is wrong ! ' said the old gentleman ; ' these New- 
Yorkers seem to take a pleasure in defacing the monu- 
ments of the good old times, and of depriving themselves 
of all venerable and patriotic associations. This house 
should have been continued in its old situation, on its own 
original and proper eminence, where its very aspect would 
have suggested its history. It was built upward of seventy 
years ago by a gallant British officer, who had done good 
service to his native country and to this. Here Lord 
Amherst was entertained and held his head-quarters at 
the close of those successful American campaigns which, 
by the way, prevented half the State of New York from 
now being a part of Canada. Here were afterward suc- 
cessively the quarters of several of our American generals 
in the beginning of the Revolution, and again after the 
evacuation of the city. Here John Adams lived as Vice- 
President during the time that Congress sat in New York ; 
and here Aaron Burr, during the whole of his Vice-Presi- 
dency, kept up an elegant hospitality, and filled the room 
in which we stand with a splendid library, equally indica- 
tive of his taste and scholarship. The last considerable 
man that lived here was Counselor Benzon, afterward Gov- 
ernor of the Danish islands, — a man who, like you, Mr. 
Herbert, had traveled in every part of the world, knew 
everything, and talked all languages. I recollect dining 
here in company with thirteen gentlemen, none of whom 
I ever saw before, but all pleasant fellows, all men of edu- 
cation and some note — the Counselor, a Norwegian, I, the 
only American, the rest of every different nation in Europe, 
and no two of the same, and all of us talking bad French. 



444 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

" ' There are few old houses,' continued Mr. De Vielle- 
cour, 'with the sight of which my youth was familiar, that 
I find here now. Two or three, however, I still recog- 
nize One of these is the house built by my friend, Chief- 
Justice Jay, in the lower part of Broadway, and now occu- 
pied as a boarding-house. It is, as you know, a large, 
square three-story house, of hewn stone, as substantially 
built within as without ; durable, spacious, and commodi- 
ous ; and, like the principles of the builder, always useful 
and excellent, whether in or out of fashion.' 

" 1 1 believe he did not reside there long 1 ' said I. 

" ' No ; he soon afterward removed into the house built 
by the State for the Governors, and then to Albany, so that 
I saw little of him in that house beyond a mere morning 
visit or two. No remaining object brings him to my mind 
so strongly as the square pew in Trinity Church, about 
the center of the north side of the north aisle. It is now, 
like everything else in New York, changed. It is divided 
into several smaller pews, though still retaining, exter- 
nally, its original form. That pew was the scene of his 
regular, sober, unostentatious devotion, and I never look 
at it without a feeling of veneration. But, Mr. Herbert, 
can you tell me what is become of the house of my other 
old friend, Governor George Clinton, of Greenwich 1 ' 

" ' It is still in existence,' I answered, 'although in 
very great danger of shortly being let down, like the one 
in which we now are.' 

" ' When I was in the Assembly,' pursued Mr. De 
Viellecour, 'the Governor used to date his messages at 
Greenwich, near New York. Now, I suppose, the mansion 
is no longer near, but in, New York.' 

" ' Not quite,' I replied, ' but doubtless will be, next 
year. In the meantime, the house looks as it did.' 

" ' I remember it well — a long, low, venerable, irregu- 
lar, white, cottage-like, brick-and-wood building, pleasant, 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 445 

notwithstanding, with a number of small, low rooms, and 
one very spacious parlor, delightfully situated on a steep 
bank, some fifty feet above the shore, on which the waves 
of the Hudson and the tides of the bay dashed and sported. 
There was a fine orchard, too, and a garden on the north ; 
but I suppose that if not gone, they are going, as they say 
in Pearl Street.' 

" ' It is even so. Were you often there 1 ' 
" ' Not often ; but I had there, too, divers official din- 
ners, and at one of them I recollect sitting next to old 
Melancthon Smith, a self-taught orator, the eloquent 
opposer of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and 
the Patrick Henry of the New York Convention of 1788. 
who for weeks successfully resisted the powerful and dis- 
cursive logic of Hamilton, and the splendid rhetoric of 
Robert R. Livingston. On my other side, and near the 
Governor, sat Brissot de Warville, then on a visit to this 
country, whose history as a benevolent, philosophic specu- 
latist, an ardent though visionary republican, and one of 
the unfortunate leaders of the Gironde party in the French 
National Assembly, everybody knows.' 

" ' But you say nothing of the Governor himself 
" ' Oh, surely you must have known him ! If you did 
not, Trumbull's full-length of him in the City Hall here, 
taken forty years ago, and Ceracchi's bust, of about the 
same date, will give you an excellent idea of his appear- 
ance.' 

" ' Oh, yes, his appearance was familiar to me, ;md I 
knew him personally, too ; but when I was in his company 
I was too young to have much conversation with him ; 
and afterward, when he was last Governor, and during his 
Vice-Presidency, I was, you know, out of the country.' 

" ' His conversation and manners in private corre- 
sponded exactly with his public character and his looks. 
His person and face had a general resemblance to those 



446 HISTORY OP NEW YORK CITY. 

of Washington ; but, though always dignified, and in old 
aire venerable, he had not that air of heroic elevation which 
threw such majesty around the Father of the Republic. 
There was a similar resemblance in mind. If he had the 
calm grandeur of Washington's intellect, he had the same 
plain, practical, sound, wholesome common sense, the same 
unpretending but unerring sagacity as to men and meas- 
ures, the same directness of purpose and firmness of decis- 
ion. These qualities were exerted, as Governor during our 
Revolution, with such effect that the people never forgot it, 
and they witnessed their gratitude by confiding to him the 
government of this State for twenty-one years, and the 
second office in the Union for eight more. His behavior in 
society was plain but dignified, his conversation easy, 
shrewd, sensible, and commonly about matters of fact — the 
events of the Revolution, the politics of the day, the useful 
arts, and agriculture. 

" ' Is Hamilton's house still standing ? ' 
" ' Not that in which he labored as Secretary of the 
Treasury to restore the ruined credit of the nation, and 
reduce our finances and revenue laws to order and uni- 
formity — where he wrote the Federalist, and those admi- 
rable reports which now form the most luminous com- 
mentary upon our Constitution. That was in Wall Street ; 
it has been pulled down, and its site is occupied by the 
Mechanics' Bank. His last favorite residence was the 
Grange, his country-seat at Bloomingdale, which, when I 
last saw it, remained much as he left it ' 

." Mr. Viellecour and myself ordered some refreshment, 
as a kind of apology for the freedoms we had taken with 
the old mansion. On leaving it, we walked down Green- 
wich Street, moralizing, as we went, on the changes which 
time was working, so much more visibly in this little 
corner of the world than in any other part of it which I 
had seen — where the flight of years seemed swifter than 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.- 447 

elsewhere, and to bring with it more striking moral le- 
sons. After an absence of thirty years from the great 
cities of Europe, I beheld, when I revisited them, the same 
aspect — venerable still, yet neither newer nor older than 
before — the same order of streets, the same public build- 
ings, the same offices, hotels, and shops, the same names on 
the signs, and found my way through their intricacies, as 
if I had left them but yesterday. Here, on the other hand, 
when I returned after an absence of two years, everything 
was strange, new, and perplexing, and I lost my way in 
streets which had been laid out since I left the city. 

" My companion often stopped to look at houses and 
sites of which he had some remembrance. ' There,' said he, 
pointing to a modest-looking two-story dwelling in one of 
the cross-streets, ' there died my good friend Mons. Albert, 
a minister of our French Protestant Church about twenty 
years ago, a very learned and eloquent divine, and the 
most modest man I ever knew. He was a native of Lau- 
sanne, a nephew of D'Yverdun, the friend of Gibbon, who 
figures in the correspondence and memoirs of the histo- 
rian. Mons. Albert was much in the society of Gibbon, 
and has related to me many anecdotes of his literary 
habits and conversation.' 

" ' I must not suffer you to monopolize all the recol- 
lections of the city,' said I to my friend. 'Observe, if 
you please, that house on the corner opposite the one to 
which you have directed my attention. There lived, for 
a time, my old acquaintance, Collies, a mathematician, a 
geographer, and a mechanician of no mean note. He was 
a kind of living antithesis, and I have often thought that 
nature made him expressly to illustrate that figure of 
rhetoric. He was a man of the most diminutive frame 
and the most gigantic conceptions, the humblest demeanor, 
and the boldest projects I ever knew. Forty years ago, 
his mind was teeming with plans of Western canals, steam- 



448 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

boats, railroads, and other public enterprises, which in 
more fortunate and judicious hands have since proved 
fruitful of wealth to the community, and of merited honor 
to those who carried them through. Poor Collies had 
neither capital to undertake them himself, plausibility to 
recommend them to others, nor public character and sta- 
tion to give weight and authority to his opinions. So he 
schemed and toiled and calculated all his life, and died at 
eighty, without having gained either wealth for himself, 
or gratitude from the public. The marine telegraphs in 
this port are a monument of his ingenuity, for he was the 
first man of the country who established a regular anl 
intelligible system of ship signals.' 

" My friend stopped at some of the shops to make 
inquiries concerning the ancient inmates. At length I 
heard him asking for Adonis. ' Pray,' said I, ' who is this 
modern Adonis for whom you are inquiring] Some 
smooth, rose-cheeked boy, doubtless, like him of Mount 
Libanus.' 

" ' This Adonis, replied Mr. Viellecour. ' is neither a 
smooth nor rose-cheeked boy, being, in fact, a black old 
man, or rather gentleman, for a gentleman he is every inch 
of him, although a barber. I say is, for I hope he is still 
alive and well, although I have not seen him for some 
years. In this sneaking, fashion-conforming, selfish world, 
I hold in high honor any man who, for the sake of any 
principle, important or trifling, right or wrong, so it be 
without personal interest, will for years submit to incon- 
venience or ridicule. Adonis submitted to both, and for 
principle's sake.' 

" ' Principle's sake ! Upon what head V 

" ' Upon his own, sir, or upon Louis the Sixteenth's, just 
as you please. Adonis was an old French negro, whom 
the convulsions attendant in the West Indies upon the 
French revolution threw upon our shores, and who held 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 449 

in the utmost horror all Jacobinical and republican abom- 
inations. He had an instinctive sagacity as to what was 
genteel and becoming in manners and behavior, as well 
as in the cut of a gentleman's hair, or the curl of a lady's. 
He had attended to the progress of the French revolution 
with the greatest interest, and his feelings were excited 
to the highest pitch when he heard of the beheading of 
the French king and the banishment of the royal family. 
He then deliberately renounced the French nation and 
their canaille parvenue rulers, and, in testimony of the sin- 
cerity of his indignation and grief, took off his hat and 
vowed never to put it on again until the Bourbons should 
be restored to the throne. This vow he faithfully kept. 
For twenty-one years, through all weather, did he walk 
the streets of New York bare-headed, carrying his hat 
under his arm with the air of a courtier, filled with combs, 
scissors, and other implements of his trade, until his hair, 
which was of the deepest black when he first took it off, 
had become as white as snow. For my part, I confess I 
never saw him, on my occasional visits to the city, walk- 
ing to the houses of his customers without his hat, but 
I felt inclined to take off my own to him. Like all the 
rest of the world, I took it for granted that the loyal old 
negro would never wear his hat again. At length, in the 

year 1814, the French armed schooner , with the 

white flag flying, arrived in the port of New York, bring- 
ing the first intelligence of the return of the Bourbons to 
their throne and kingdom. Adonis would not believe the 
report that flew like wild-fire about the city. He would 
not trust the translations from the French gazettes that 
were read to him in the American papers by his custom- 
ers, but walked down to the Battery with the same old 
hat under his arm which he had carried there for twenty 
years, saw the white flag with his own eyes, heard the 
news in French from the mouth of the cook on board the 



450 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

vessel, and then, waving his hat three times in the air, 
gave three huzzas, and replaced it on his head with as 
much heart-felt pride as Louis the Eighteenth could have 
done his crown.' 

" I could not help smiling at the earnest gravity of 
the old gentleman's eulogy upon Adonis. ' I fear,' said I ? 
1 that your chivalric coiffeur owes a little of his sentimental 
loyalty to your own admiration of everything generous 
and disinterested. When you are excited on this head, 
sir, you often remind me of what old Fuseli, in his ener- 
getic style, used to say of his great idol, Michael Angelo — 
' All that he touched was indiscriminately stamped with 
his own grandeur. A beggar rose from his hands the 
patriarch of poverty ; the very hump of his dwarf is im- 
pressed with dignity.' I suspect you have been uncon- 
sciously playing the Michael Angelo in lighting up such 
a halo of consecrated glory round the bare and time-hon- 
ored head of old Adonis. I am afraid I cannot do quite 
as much for another tonsorial artist of great celebrity who 
flourished here in our days, but whom, as at that time 
you were not much in the habit of coming to town, per- 
haps you do not remember. He made no claim to chiv- 
alry or romance — his sole ambition was to be witty and 
poetical ; and witty he certainly was, as well as the ve- 
hicle and conduit of innumerable good pleasantries of 
other people. I mean John Desborus Huggins.' 

" ' Huggins — Huggins,' said Mr. De Viellecour. ' I knew 

a young lady of that name once ; she is now Mrs. , 

the fashionable milliner.' 

" ' Oh, yes ; that incident of your life cannot easily lose 
its place in my memory. But John Desborus Huggins 
was no relation of hers. He was of pure English blood, 
and had no kindred on this side of the Atlantic. At the 
beginning of this century, and for a dozen years after, he 
was the most fashionable, as well as the most accom- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 451 

plished, artist in this city for heads, male or female. He 
had a shop in Broadway, a low wooden building, where 
now towers a tall brick pile, opposite the City Hotel. 
This was literally the head-quarters of fashion ; and for- 
tune, as usual, followed in the train of fashion. But Hug- 
gins had a soul that scorned to confine its genius to the 
external decoration of his customers' heads. He panted 
after wider fame ; he had cut Washington Irving's hair ; 
he had shaved Anacreon Moore, and Joel Barlow on his 
first return from France ; from them, when he was here, 
he caught the strong contagion of authorship. One day 
he wrote a long advertisement, in which he ranged from 
his own shop in Broadway to high and bold satire upon 
those who held the helm of state at Washington, mim- 
icked Jefferson's style, and cracked some good-humored 
jokes upon Giles and Randolph. He carried it to the 
Evening Post. The editor, the late Mr. Coleman, you 
know, was a man of taste as well as a keen politician. He 
pruned off Huggins's exuberances, corrected his English, 
threw in a few pungent sarcasms of his own, and printed it. 
" 'It had forthwith a run through all the papers on 
the Federal side of the question in the United States, and 
as many of the others as could relish a good joke, though 
at the expense of their own party. The name of Huggins 
became known from Georgia to Maine. Huggins tried a 
second advertisement of the same sort — a third, a fourth, 
with equal success. His fame as a wit was now estab- 
lished, business flowed in upon him in full and unebbing 
tide. Wits and would-be wits, fashionables and would-be 
fashionables, thronged his shop ; strangers from North and 
from South had their heads cropped and their chins scraped 
by him for the sake of saying, on their return home, th.it 
they had seen Huggins ; whilst, during the party-giving 
season, he was under orders from the ladies every day and 
hour for three weeks ahead. But alas, unhappy man ! he 



452 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

had now a literary reputation to support, and his inven- 
tion, lively and sparkling as it had been at first, soon began 
to run dry. He was now obliged to tax his friends and 
patrons for literary assistance. Mr. Coleman was too 
deeply engaged in the daily discussion of grave topics to 
continue his help. In the kindness of my excellent friend, 
the late Anthony Bleecker, he found for a long time a 
never-failing resource. You were not much acquainted 
with Bleecker, I think, the most honorable, the most ami- 
able, and the most modest of human beings. Fraught 
with talent, taste, and literature, a wit and a poet, he 
rarely appeared in public as an author himself, while his 
careless generosity furnished the best part of their capital 
to dozens of literary adventurers, sometimes giving them 
style for their thoughts, and sometimes thoughts for their 
style. Bleecker was too kindly tempered for a partisan 
politician, and his contributions to Huggins were either 
good-natured pleasantries upon the fashions or frivolities 
of the day, or else classical imitations and spirited paro- 
dies in flowing and polished versification. Numerous 
other wits and witlings, when Bleecker grew tired of it, 
some of whom had neither his taste nor his nice sense of 
gentlemanly decorum, began to contribute, until at length 
Huggins found himself metamorphosed into the regular 
Pasquin of New York, on whom, as on a mutilated old 
statue of that name at Rome, every wag stuck his anony- 
mous epigram, joke, satire, or lampoon, whatever was 
unseemly in his eyes or unsavory in his nostrils in this 
good city. I believe he was useful, however. If his 
humanities had not been too much neglected in his youth 
to allow him to quote Latin, he might have asked with 
Horace — Ridentem dicer e verum — " 

" ' My dear sir,' interrupted the old gentleman, ' if you 
will quote, and I see you are getting into one of your quot- 
ing moods, you had better quote old Kats, my maternal 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 453 

grandmother's favorite book, the great poet of Holland 
and common sense. He has said it better than Horace : 
" Haar lagehend coysheid laert, haar spelend vormt ter 
deuyd." You ought always to quote old Kats, whenever 
you can, for I suspect that you and I and Judge Benson 
are the only natives south of the Highlands who can read 
him. But to return to your barber-author.' 

" ' Huggins became as fond and as proud of these con- 
tributions as if he had written them all himself, and at 
last collected them and printed them together in one 
goodly volume, entitled Hugginiana, illustrated with de- 
signs by Jarvis, and wood-cuts by Anderson. He was 
now an author in all the forms. Luckless author ! His 
vaulting ambition overleaped itself. He sent a copy of 
his book to the Edinburgh Review, then in the zenith of its 
glory, and the receipt was never acknowledged. He sent 
another copy to Dennie, whose Port Folio then guided the 
literary taste of this land, and Dennie noticed it only in 
a brief and cold paragraph. What was excellent in a 
newspaper jeu d' esprit, whil&t events and allusions were 
fresh, lost, of course, much of its relish when served up 
cold, years after, in a clumsy duodecimo. Besides, not 
having been able to prevail on himself to part with any- 
thing which had once appeared under his name, much 
very inferior matter was suffered to overlay those sprightly 
articles which had first given him eclat. Then the town 
critics assailed him, and that " most delicate monster," the 
public, who had laughed at every piece, good, bad, and 
indifferent, singly in succession, now that the whole was 
collected, became fastidious, and, at the instigation of the 
the critics aforesaid, pronounced the book to be "low." 
Frightful sentence ! Huggins never held up his head after 
it. His razors and scissors lost their edge ; his napkins and 
aprons their lustrous whiteness, and his conversation its 
soft spirit and vivacity. His affairs all went wrong thence- 



454 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 

forward, and whatever might have been the immediate 
cause of his death, which took place a year or two after, 
the real and efficient reason was undoubtedly mortified 
literary pride. " Around his tomb," as old Johnson says 
of Archbishop Laud — 

" ' Around his tomb, let arts and genius weep, 

But hear his death, ye blockheads, hear and sleep." ' 

" We had now got far down into the old part of the 
city, when, turning up Vesey Street from Greenwich, Mr. 
De Viellecour made a sudden pause. ' Ah/ said he, ' one 
more vestige of the past. There,' pointing to a common- 
looking old house, ' there, in 1790, was the atelier of 
Ceracchi, when he was executing his fine busts of our 
great American statesmen.' 

" ' Indeed ! ' answered I. ' I have often thought of it 
as a singular piece of natural good fortune, that, at a time 
when our native arts were at so low an ebb, we had such 
an artist thrown upon our shores to perpetuate the true 
and living likenesses of our Revolutionary chiefs ' and 
sages. Ceracchi's busts of Washington, Jay, Alexander 
Hamilton, George Clinton, and others, are now, as mere 
portraits, above all price to this nation ; and they have, 
besides, a classic grace about them which entitles the artist 
to no contemptible rank as a statuary.' 

" ' It was not a piece of mere good fortune,' said my 
friend ; ' we have to thank the artist himself for it. Cerac- 
chi was a zealous republican, and he came here full of 
enthusiasm, anxious to identify his own name in the arts 
somehow or other with our infant republic— and he has 
done it. He had a grand design of a national monument, 
which he used to show to his visitors, and which he wished 
Congress to employ him to execute in marble or bronze. 
Of course they did not do so ; and, as it happened, he was 
much more usefully employed for the nation in modeling 
the busts of our great men.' 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 455 

« i He was an Italian— I believe a Roman— and had 
lived some time in England, where he was patronized by 
Reynolds. Sir Joshua (no mean proof of his talent) sat 
to him for a bust, and a fine one, I am told, it is. Ceracchi 
came to America enthusiastic for liberty, and he found 
nothing here to make him change his principles orieel- 
ings But the nation was not ripe for statuary : a dozen 
busts exhausted the patronage of the country, and Con- 
oress was too busy with pounds, shillings, and pence, fixing 
The revenue laws, and funding the debt, to think of his 
grand allegorical monument. Ceracchi could not live upon 
liberty alone, much as he loved it; and, when the French 
Revolution took a very decided character, he went to 
France, and plunged into politics. Some years after he 
returned to Rome, where he was unfortunately killed in 
an insurrection or popular tumult, growing out of the uni- 
versal revolutionary spirit of those times.' 

'"May his remains rest in peace,' added I. What- 
ever higher works of art he may have left elsewhere— and 
he who° could produce those fine classic, historical busts, 
was undoubtedly capable of greater things-whatever else 
he may have left in Europe, here his will be an enduring 
name As long as Americans shall hold in honored 
remembrance the memory of their first and best patriots, 
-as Ion* as our sons shall look with reverent interest on 
their sculptured images, the name of Ceracchi will be 
cherished here : 

« " And while along the stream of time, their name 
Expanded flies and gathers all its fame ; 
Still shall his little hark attendant sail, 
Pursue the triumph and partake the gale." ' 

« We had now finished our long walk, and, as the old 
gentleman was going into his lodgings, I took leave of him, 
Baying that our afternoon's walk had furnished me with 
the materials, and I was now going home to record our con- 
versation as a chapter of < Reminiscences of New York. 






CHAPTER VII. 

The year 1834* may with propriety be called the 
Year of Riots. In that year, the civil authorities were 
obliged, for the first time, to call for military aid to 
assist in maintaining the peace of the city. It was 
on the 10th of April, during the municipal election,! that 
the services of the National Guard were called into requi- 
sition — a call, says a chronicler of that day, which " was 
responded to with an alacrity that produced a very strik- 
ing impression on the minds of the people." J 

The elections, at that time, were held for three succes- 
sive days ; and, in the inefficient condition of the city 
police, they were oftentimes the cause of great excitement 
and turbulence. On the present occasion, party strife ran 
high, and gave rise to a series of brawls and riots in the 

* From the year 1829 to the present year (1834), there is no event in the his- 
tory of the city — with the exception of the cholera in 1832 — that calls for par- 
ticular mention. The cholera of 1832 (which then visited the city for the first 
time) raged to a fearful extent, " almost depopulating the city, and creating a 
universal panic among the inhabitants. It returned two years afterward, modi- 
fied in violence, then disappeared entirely until 1849, when it broke out early 
:n the summer, and raged fearfully until autumn." In 1855, it again appeared, 
nor has it since wholly abandoned the city. 

f It was in 1834 that the Mayor was elected by the city for the first time. 
Hitherto, as mentioned in a preceding note, that office had been filled by 
appointment by the Governor and Council. 

X Asher Taylor. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 457 

Sixth Ward, perfectly in keeping with the questionable 
reputation which that precinct has ever maintained.* 

Toward noon of the 10th, a large concourse of people 
collected around the head-quarters of their respective 
political leaders, whence they sallied forth, armed with 
bludgeons and stones, and endeavored to drive their oppo- 
nents off the ground. At length, their passions getting 
the mastery of their reason, many from either side made 
a dash upon the gun-shops in Broadway for fire-arms. By 
this time the entire population of that part of the city, 
becoming greatly alarmed at the probable result of the 
disturbance, were in a condition to believe any report that 
might be started. Accordingly, when it was rumored that 
the mob were on their way to the State Arsenal to obtain 
by force the arms and ammunition there stored, a large 
number of peaceable citizens hastened to seize and hold 
possession of that building against the fighting men of all 
parties. 

The State Arsenal was a three-story brick building 
(erected in 1808), on the corner of Elm and Franklin 
Streets, and, with its yard and out-buildings, occupied the 
block between Center and Elm, and Franklin and White 
Streets. In the center of the front, facing on Franklin 
Street, was a handsome three-story brick dwelling, the 
residence, at that time, of the Commissary General, who 
had charge of the establishment. 

The party that made for the Arsenal was increased on 
the way by a large crowd, actuated by various motives. 
Some were for peace, and some for war ; while many were 
in for anything that might turn up. Gaining access to the 
yard and obtaining the keys of the main building in which 
the arms were deposited, the party armed themselves, and 
prepared to defend the establishment from the belligerent 
crowds who, they apprehended, might make an attempt 

* Hence its appellation — " The Bloody ould Sixth." 
58 



458 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

upon it — a course which their own hasty action was well 
calculated to invite. 

The news of the attack on the Arsenal and its capture 
spread, greatly exaggerated, like wild-fire throughout the 
city, and, superadded to the stories of war already afloat, 
created an alarm unprecedented heretofore in the civil 
history of the city. Meanwhile, Mayor Lee called for 
military aid upon General Morton, who acted with such 
promptitude that in a very short space of time most of the 
members of the Twenty-seventh regiment had assembled 
at the Arsenal, armed and uniformed. The irregular force 
that had been holding the establishment at once retired, 
and left it in charge of the soldiers ; and the turbulence and 
disorder soon subsiding, the peace of the city was restored. 

After midnight, the Mayor visited the garrison, and 
relieved the regiment from further duty, thanking the 
men for their prompt response to his call for aid, and 
declaring emphatically that " the city had been in a state 
of insurrection, beyond the power of the civil authorities to 
control or subdue." 

" The people of the city, of all classes, were enlight- 
ened by the novel experience of that day — the mass of 
quiet citizens, by the knowlege that a disorderly element 
existed in their midst of a most formidable and alarming 
character, spreading widely, and including parties and 
classes before undreamed of in such connections ; and the 
civil authorities, by the assurance that they possessed a 
power and a force hitherto untried, reliable, and at ready 
command for such emergencies, which was deemed by 
them of incalculable importance ; and the members of the 
National Guard, by the evidence that had passed under 
their observation, that on their organization, in a great 
measure, the orderly people and the civil authorities of 
the city must rely for their future security of ' life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness' within its borders. The 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 459 

reflections called up by the events of that day sank deeper 
in the minds of observing and thinking men than appeared 
at the moment."* 

In reference to the duties of the 10th of April, the 
Common Council passed the following resolution : 

" That the thanks of the Common Council be presented to the individuals 
who thus nobly sustained their reputation as citizen soldiers, and proved the 
importance and the necessity to the city of a well-disciplined militia, in time of 
peace as well as in time of war." 

Major-General Morton, in promulgating the resolution 
of the Common Council, adds 

" Next to the satisfaction arising from the consciousness of having performed 
a duty, is the approbation of those whose good opinion we prize. These reso- 
lutions, emanating from the municipal authorities of our city, cannot, therefore, 
but be highly gratifying. 

" The late occurrences will show to the public the necessity and the use of 
a well-regulated militia, prepared at all times to support the magistracy in sus- 
taining law and order in the community. It will confirm us in the opinion, 
long entertained, that the time has not yet arrived when we may beat our 
swords into plowshares, and our spears into pruning-hooks. 

" The Major-General doubts not that the corps will still continue to perform 
their duties ; they will be sustained by their fellow-citizens, who will see in 
them, not the array of an uncontrolled force, but a power directed by the ven- 
erable majesty of the laws in the persons of the magistrates." 

On the 21st of June, Major-General Morton "had the 
melancholy duty to announce to the Division the death of 
General Lafayette," in France, on the 20th of May pre- 
ceding, in the ninety-seventh year of his age. The Gen- 
eral thus concluded : 

" But a few years since we were engaged in wel- 
coming him, with joyful and grateful hearts, as one of 
the soldiers of our Revolution, and the adopted son of 
our country. We are now called upon to pay funeral 
honors to his memory. 

" The Common Council have resolved to pay funeral 
honors to the deceased, and have invited the corps to unite 
with them on the occasion. 

* Recollections of the Seventh Regiment. 



460 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

" The Division is therefore ordered for duty on the 
26th inst.," on which day the regiment united in an im- 
posing military and civic demonstration in celebration of 
the funeral obsequies of the last General officer of the Rev- 
olution, " the confidential friend of the great Washington, 
and the adopted son of our country — the illustrious Mar- 
quis de Lafayette." 

Three months after the National Guard had quelled the 
" Election Riot," they were again called upon to put down 
a disturbance of a much more formidable character. 

For several months in the early part of the year there 
had been considerable feeling against certain citizens en- 
tertaining anti-slavery opinions, or, as they were from this 
period styled, " Abolitionists" who were holding a series of 
public meetings in which, as their opponents alleged, they 
" indulged in the most latitudinarian discussions, and vio- 
lent and exciting declamations in favor of their peculiar 
views, and in denunciation of all adverse to them." 

Some of the leading party newspapers of the day, also, 
pandered to the prejudices of the lower classes of the com- 
munity, and suggested a course of open hostility and acts 
of violence, with the view of making short work of the 
" pestilent faction." At the same time it must be admitted 
that the Abolitionists themselves were not without blame, 
and, in many instances, exhibited a " zeal without knowl- 
edge." Indeed, their conduct was in some respects most 
reprehensible ; for, while the excitement was almost at its 
height, among other things calculated to inflame their oppo- 
nents, they posted an incendiary placard all over the city, 

headed, 

" Look Out for Kidnapping ! ! " 

Then followed a cut representing a negro-driver mounted 
on a horse, with a double-thonged whip, driving before 
him a colored man, whose wife and children were cling- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 4G1 

ing to him to prevent the unnatural separation. The 
result may easily be seen. The meetings of the Aboli- 
tionists were attacked and broken up ; and the mob, 
" increasing in boldness under the promptings and encour- 
agement of their friends and advisers," as in the case of 
the " Draft Riot " in 1863, proceeded to the dwellings of 
Arthur and Lewis Tappan, on Rose Street, and other 
well-known and reputable citizens who were specially 
obnoxious, and, in their own expressive slang, " went 
through them," breaking furniture, and burning such 
pieces as were too heavy to be lifted. At length, a proc- 
lamation from the Mayor, and several troops of the city 
cavalry called out for the occasion, having failed to dis- 
perse the rioters, who were every moment becoming more 
violent and threatening, that personage, on the afternoon 
of the 11th of July, called upon the National Guard 
(the Twenty-seventh regiment) for assistance. The men 
responded with alacrity, and in two hours from the time 
of receiving their orders had assembled in the Arsenal 
yard, to the number of four hundred. 

Upon being directed by the Mayor to march with his 
command to the City Hall and hold himself in readiness 
for such action as might be required, Colonel Stevens 
asked for a supply of ammunition before he moved. To 
this request the Mayor at first gave a refusal ; but, upon 
the Colonel telling him decidedly that he should not 
advance a step without it, he gave a reluctant consent, 
and six rounds of ball-cartridges were thereupon served 
out to the regiment.* 

* " Colonel Stevens used, in after times, often to speak of his anxiety at the 
time as to how 'his boys' would conduct themselves in this their first appear- 
ance in such a trying position. They were, a large portion of them, quite 
young, and had had but little training of their minds to the reality of such 
grave duties as were then before them ; he watched, with no little solicitude, 
their reception of the ball-cartridges, which seemed a novelty to many of them ; 
they turned them over in their hands as if surprised at their appearance, and 



462 • HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

The troops then marched down Broadway to the Park. 
The street was filled with an excited crowd of rowdies, 
who assailed the men at every step with hisses and hoot- 
ings. The mob and the riotous proceedings seemed, in 
fact, to be "rather popular with the people generally, even 
of the better classes, who were in the streets looking on." 
This ill-judged sympathy and the insults of the rowdies, 
however, had the effect, the Colonel observed, of exciting 
the " boys " to a proper pitch of feeling for the occasion, 
so that by the time they reached the Park " nothing 
would have suited them better than an order to ' pitch 
into ' their blackguard assailants." The regiment remained 
for a considerable time in front of the City Hall, march- 
ing and countermarching in presence of the collected 
crowd, that the latter might see that they were ready for 
tho work on hand. This came sooner, perhaps, than was 
expected. 

About ten o'clock in the evening, word was brought 
of a large and disorderly gathering in the vicinity of the 
Spring-street Church (Rev. Mr. Ludlow's), between Mac- 
dougal and Varick Streets. This was one of the most ob- 
noxious points, several meetings of the Abolitionists hav- 
ing been held there, and the minister of the congregation 
being understood to be among the most zealous of that 
class. It was feared that the rioters intended to destroy 
the church building, and Colonel Stevens was ordered to 
march as quickly as possible to the scene of the riot. 
Before moving, he gave the order to load with ball-car- 
tridges ; " and closely watching, with no little interest, 
the motions of the men, he was satisfied, from the jerk 
and emphasis with which the 'ram down' was given, that 
they were all right, and that there would be no hesitation 

appeared to be remarking to each other upon the new and strange position in 
which they found themselves; they all, however, he noted, placed the car- 
tridges in their boxes." — Recollections of the Seventh Regiment. 



HISTORY OP NEW YORK CITY. 453 

or hanging back on their part when the time came for 
action." 

The churches, indeed, seemed to be the special object 
of dislike to the rioters. Besides Rev. Mr. Ludlow's 
church, on Spring Street, the mob made demonstrations 
against Dr. Cox's church, corner of Laight and Varick 
Streets ; the African Chapel, corner of Leonard and 
Church ; St. Philip's Church (also a colored Church), on 
Center Street, and a church corner of Dey and Washington 
Streets. The residence of Dr. Cox was also attacked ; but 
fortunately the Doctor and his family, having received 
notice of the intentions of the mob, had, a few hours 
before, packed up their furniture and moved to the house 
of a friend. 

The regiment first met the rioters in large force in 
Thompson Street, above Prince, where they were prepar- 
ing to sack the parsonage of the Spring-street Church. 
This, however, was prevented by the timely appearance 
of the troops, who, pressing forward with the bayonet, 
compelled the mob to foil back. All the streets in the 
vicinity were filled with angry faces, on which the most 
malignant and diabolical passions were depicted ; and as 
the regiment wheeled from Macdougal into Spring Street, 
to protect the church — the especial object of the fury of 
the mob — the men were assailed with stones and other 
missiles thrown from windows and from the crowd, by 
which many were hit, and several were felled to the 
ground. This so exasperated the soldiers that it was only 
with the greatest difficulty they were restrained from at 
once opening fire. " A striking feature of this occasion," 
says General Prosper M. Wetmore, who was present, "was 
the shower of sparks struck out by the stones glancing on 
the bayonets and barrels of the muskets." 

Near the church the regiment encountered a barricade 
of carts, barrels, and ladders chained together, planted 



464 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

across the street. On top of this obstruction a City Hall 
politician was haranguing and encouraging the mob to 
further resistance and deeds of outrage. He, however, 
was quickly disposed of, and, with a dozen men of the 
same stripe, sent to the rear under guard. The troops had 
not arrived a moment too soon. Already a portion of the 
pews and furniture had been thrown into the street, and 
one of the rioters was in the steeple ringing the bell, to 
attract the mob. He, too, was immediately seized and 
placed in custody ; and " the church cleared of its irrev- 
erent congregation." 

At this juncture, the Aldermen who had been deputed 
by Mayor Lawrence to accompany the military, and to 
direct, as magistrates, the action of the regiment, became 
greatly alarmed, and, having entered into negotiations for 
an armistice, agreed to a cessation of hostilities upon a 
promise of some of the mob to disperse. Accordingly, 
they endeavored to prevail on Colonel Stevens to "retreat " 
to the City Hall, asserting that the rioters were too for- 
midable for his little band to contend with. To this the 
Colonel answered that " there was no retreat in the case ; 
that he was there with his regiment for the purpose of dis- 
persing the mob and quelling the riot; that be should not 
retire until that was done ; and that he should proceed to 
the City Hall only through that crowd.* He then, in defi- 
fiance of the orders of the Aldermen again reiterated, 
moved two companies up to the barricade under a shower 
of stones, broke it up, and, marching through the debris, 
wheeled into Varick Street, driving the mob before him at 
the point of the bayonet. Here he met Justice Olin M. 
Lowndes, t who had formerly been a captain in the regi- 
ment, with a force of police, and, thus reinforced, he 

* Can it be that General Grant borrowed bis famous pbrase of " fighting it 
out on tbis line " from these words of Colonel Stevens ! 
f Justice, not Sheriff, Lowndes, as Asher Taylor states. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 465 

turned round and marched back against the mob. Charg- 
ing with prolonged cheers through the remains of the 
barricade, the troops and police pushed the rioters rapidly 
back to Sullivan Street. Here Colonel Stevens halted his 
first division, holding Spring Street in that direction, and, 
wheeling the second across Sullivan Street, and the third 
and fourth to the left, facing opposite, he held securely all 
the streets, severed the mob into four pieces, and thus 
restored order in that section of the city. 

The whole performance of the regiment, says Asher 
Taylor, was admirable. The men were assailed with 
stones and every offensive missile, and some of them were 
spit upon by the rabble. A number of them were struck 
and severely bruised. The sergeant-major was felled to 
the ground at the side of his colonel; notwithstanding 
which, with a forbearance from retaliation, and a subordi- 
nation to discipline, truly surprising, and reflecting the 
highest credit on the commanding officer and all engaged 
in the duty, the colonel, elated at having accomplished 
his ends without resorting to the use of fire-arms, joyously 
exclaimed, " A victory, without firing a shot !" 

On their way back to the City Hall, the troops marched 
through Center Street, and quickly put to flight a party 
of the rioters that was assailing St. Philip's (colored) 
Church. 

The regiment was put on duty again the next after- 
noon ; but, with the exception of slight disturbances at 
the head of Catharine Street, near Chatham Square, and 
in Greenwich village, the night passed off quietly. The 
troops, however, were kept under arms until Sunday, the 
13th, at three o'clock, when they were dismissed to their 
homes, with orders to hold themselves in readiness to 
re-assemble at three strokes of the City Hall bell. Hap- 
pily their services were not again required. The mob had 
been effectually put down, and peace was again restored. 

59 



1Q6 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Scarcely, however, had the troops been dismissed, and 
the city restored to quiet, when, in August, their services 
were again called upon to suppress a riot among the 
stone-cutters and masons. The cause of the disturbance 
was as follows : While the University was building, the 
contractors, for economy's sake, chose to purchase the 
marble at Sing-Sing, and employ the State prisoners to 
cut and hew it before bringing it to the city. No sooner 
was this known than it raised the ire of the stone-cutters' 
guild in the city to fever heat. Believing themselves 
aggrieved, they held meetings, paraded the city with in- 
cendiary placards, and even went so far as to attack the 
houses of several worthy citizens. The Twenty-seventh 
regiment was again called out by the Mayor, Cornelius 
W. Lawrence (who, by the way, seems to have had as 
Mayor a pretty severe term), and, commanded by Colonel 
Stevens, dispersed the malcontents. The feeling, how- 
ever, was so intense that it was thought best not to dis- 
band the troops entirely; and, accordingly, a portion of 
the regiment lay under arms in Washington parade-ground 
for four days and nights. By that time the riot was over, 
and the soldiers were dismissed to their homes. Thus 
three times, within as many months, had the militia of 
the city been called upon, at the risk of life, to put down 
riots in the city. No wonder, therefore, that a prominent 
citizen of New York wrote at this time to a friend in 
a neighboring city : " Buy me a quiet place in the suburbs, 
and, if necessary to complete the sale, draw on me for the 
amount. I cannot live here longer, for my property is not 
safe."* 

*Tke bouses on the north-west corner of Fifth Avenue and Eighteenth 
Street, now owned by Mrs. T. Bailey Myers and Mrs. Sidney Mason, were 
built by Robert C. Townsend and Henry H. Elliott, from Sing-Sing marble, 
and were, like the University, also delayed by the " Stone-cutters' Riot." 
These buildings were, -with the University, the last ones erected by material 
from that source. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 467 

In the early summer of this year, the city was once 
more thrown into excitement by what is known as " The 
Five Points Riot." For several years previous, 
and more especially since the election brawls of 
the preceding year (1834), the antagonistic spirit between 
the Irish and Americans, which resulted many years after 
in the formation of the Know-nothing party, had been 
increasing in bitterness ; and when, in June of this year, 
it was reported that a regiment, under the name of the 
" O'Connell Guards," was about to be organized in the 
city, the indignation of a portion of the native American 
population rose to fever heat. Many styled this " the 
making of an Irish regiment out of American citizens," 
and vowed that they would prevent its formation at all 
hazards. Demagogues, as is always the case at such 
times, were not wanting to encourage this feeling for 
base partisan ends ; mutual recriminations followed ; and, 
finally, the angry passions thus engendered culminated in 
open violence. 

On Sunday, the 21st of June, the peace of the city was 
disturbed and the sanctity of the Sabbath violated by 
riots of greater or lesser magnitude in different quarters 
of the town. One of these was in Grand Street, near 
Crosby. Another occurred in Chatham Street, which, 
having its rise in a quarrel between a negro and a white, 
soon grew into a general battle, and was only quelled by 
the police with considerable difficulty. The third and great- 
est riot, however, of that day took place early in the 
evening in the Sixth Ward, the scene of which was prin- 
cipally in Pearl Street, near Chatham. This, also, was 
begun by a fight between two men — Irishmen — whose 
example, proving contagious, was imitated by others of 
their countrymen in such numbers that the affray shortly 
assumed the character of a serious riot. A number of citi- 
zens here interfered to keep the peace, but only with the 



468 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

effect of increasing the uproar, and gaining for themselves 
sundry unpleasant visitations from fists, shillalahs, stones, 
and brickbats. Finally, the Mayor, accompanied by a 
large force of the police, appeared on the spot, and, having 
arrested the principal ringleaders, dispersed the rioters for 
the time being. In this affray, Dr. William McCaffrey, a 
highly-respected physician, who was passing at the time, 
on his way to visit a patient, was hit by a brick, and his 
jaw broken. He was then thrown down and his ribs 
broken ; and, although he was rescued, he shortly after- 
ward expired. By this time the turbulent element had 
extended into different parts of the city. On the next 
day, Monday, the riots were renewed by mobs of Irish 
and Americans. A public-house, known as the " Green 
Dragon," in the Bowery, near Broome Street, was attacked, 
the doors and windows broken in, and the house itself com- 
pletely " gutted." The Mayor and police again came to 
the rescue ; but the mob were not dispersed until several 
prominent citizens (among them Justice Lowndes) had 
been dangerously wounded, and a great amount of blood 
had been shed. The next day witnessed nearly the same 
scenes ; and it was not until a notice had been publicly 
displayed to the effect that "the proprietors of the 
' Bleecker-street House ' desire to state that there will 
be no meeting of the ' O'Connell Guards,' as advertised in 
the Sunday dailies," that peace was permanently restored. 

In this same year, the Don-jon, or Old Debtors' Prison, 
was changed into the present Hall of Records. A stran- 
ger in New York, and even many of its younger citizens, 
would hardly suppose, from the present appearance of the 
handsome Ionic temple standing directly east of the City 
Hall, for what " base uses " that classic edifice was origi- 
nally built, or for what ignoble purposes it was kept, until 
the present year Although it may now be justly consid- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 459 

ered one of the most correct and pleasing specimens of 
architecture in the Union, yet, until the transformation of 
its outward form and proportions, it was one of the most 
unsightly of buildings. It was not, however, of repub- 
lican origin — having been erected early in the reign of His 
Most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, as a place 
of confinement for such of his refractory subjects as either 
could not or Avould not pay their debts. Nor is it any 
great credit to his majesty's successors in the Government 
that it should not have been appropriated to some other 
use at a much earlier clay. Long did the citizens of New 
York petition for its removal or destruction, but in vain — 
until, " in the course of human events," the public service 
demanded an additional edifice as a depository for its 
records. A change from the Boeotian to the Ionic order, 
and its conversion to a more humane purpose, were then 
determined upon, not only for the public convenience, but 
from motives of economy. One of the patriotic members 
of the city government, distinguished for his enterprise and 
public spirit, undertook the work, and gave to the ancient 
walls of unhewn stone their existing " form and pres- 
sure" — at an amount, too, not much exceeding, probably, 
twice the cost of two new buildings of the same dimensions. 
The Old Debtors' Prison underwent its metamor- 
phosis during the latter days of the venerable "Poppy 
Lownds," as the worthy old jailor was called, who, for a 
long succession of years, had presided over the internal 
police of the prison. He was a kind-hearted old gentle- 
man ; and, amidst all the storms and vicissitudes of party, 
was never removed from office during his life-time — for 
the good reason, probably, among others, that the venera- 
ble officer had grown so lusty in his place that it was 
impossible to remove him out of it without removing a 
portion of the prison walls also. Be that, however, as it 
may, almost any day " Poppy Lownds " might have been 



470 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



seen sitting in his big oaken arm-chair, dozing in some 
pleasing reverie, like a Turk over his sherbet after dinner, 
or as " calm and quiet as a summer's morning." If a visitor 
chanced to call, he would take a long pipe from his 
mouth, with the most easy deliberation, while the whiffs 
from the aromatic Virginia weed curled upward in an 




THE PROVOST, OR DEBTORS' PRISON. 

azure cloud and mingled with the vapor which had pre- 
ceded it. Still, "Poppy Lownds," as before stated, was a 
good soul, and many a debtor had cause long to remember 
the kindness with which he was treated while sojourning 
in the old Donjon.* 



* It is true that the change from a prison into the Hall of Records was con- 
templated as early as 1830; hut the building was not made perfectly ready 
for occupation until the present year. 

For a more detailed account of the Debtors' Prison see Appendix No. IX. 



1835. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

In 1835, New York was visited by the most terrible 
conflagration she had ever experienced — an event which 
was so disastrous to the mercantile as well as to the 
private interests of the city, that a full account of it 
must not be omitted. The late Mr. Gabriel P. Disosway, 
who was present on the occasion, kindly furnished me, a 
few months before his death, with the following account 
of the conflagration itself, and the losses entailed by it : 

" The fearful night of December 16, 1835, will long be remembered for the 
most terrible conflagration that has ever visited the great city. I then resided 
in that pleasant Quaker neighborhood, Vandewater Street, and hearing an alarm 
of fire, hastened to the front door. I immediately discovered, from the direc- 
tion of the flame and smoke, that the fire was ' down-town,' and not far off. 
Thousands of others besides myself dreaded such an alarm that night, as it was 
the coldest one we had had for thirty-six years. A gale of wind was also 
blowing. I put on an old warm overcoat and an old hat, for active service 
* on my own hook.' Years afterward these articles, preserved as curiosities, 
bore marks of the heat, sparks, and exposure of that fearful time. Our own 
store, Disosway & Brothers. 180 Pearl Street, near Maiden Lane, although fire- 
proof, naturally became the first object of my attention. This was provi- 
dentially located several blocks above the fire; and, accordingly, having 
lighted the gas, and leaving the clerks to watch, I hastened to the building 
that was on fire. 

" This was the store of Comstock & Andrews, well-known fancy dry-goods 
jobbers, at the corner of Pearl and Merchant Streets, a narrow, new lane, a 
little below Wall Street. When I entered the building on the lower floor, the 
fire had commenced in the counting-room, having caught, as it was believed, 
from the stove-pipe. Those few of us present had time to remove a considera- 
ble quantity of light fancy silk articles. The goods, however, were of a very 



472 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

inflammable nature, and a strong- current of air sweeping through the adjoin- 
ing lane, we were soon compelled to leave the balance of this large and valua- 
ble stock to destruction. Here, and in this manner, the great fire of 1835 
originated. 

" In a short time this tall and large brick store was enveloped in flames, 
which burst from the doors and windows on both streets. Over half an 
hour had elapsed before the first engine arrived, and attempted to throw a 
stream upon the opposite stores of Pearl Street, against which the gale was 
driving the rapidly increasing heat and embers. But so furious were both 
that the boldest firemen retreated for their lives and the safety of their 
machine. The street at this point is very narrow, and prevented any man 
from reaching the lower or adjacent part of Pearl from this end. A burning 
wall of fire now intervened, and increased every moment. The way to the 
alarming scene was through William and Water Streets, and Old Slip. After 
a little while, that which was universally dreaded happened — the water in 
the hydrants froze, and prevented the engine from obtaining any further sup- 
ply. Having drawn the ' machine ' to a safe place, the firemen nobly went to 
work saving property. It was all they possibly could do. The reader must 
remember that the thermometer had now fallen below zero, which, added to a 
biting, fierce winter wind, paralyzed the exertions of both firemen and citizens. 
All ordinary means for stopping the rapidly increasing flames were abandoned, 
and the efforts of all were directed to the removal of the contents of the build- 
ings to places beyond the supposed reach of destruction. In this way immense 
quantities of goods were placed in the large Merchants' Exchange on Wall 
Street, in Old Slip, Hanover Square, and the Garden-street Dutch Church and 
its adjoining grave-yard. In a few hours, however, the devouring element, 
reaching these areas and splendid edifices, swept everything away as with 
the ' besom of destruction.' Millions of dollars were consumed in a very 
short time. 

" I am writing my own reminiscences of that awful night, and not the expe- 
riences of another, and must be excused if I often use the personal pronoun. 
Bv midnight it was evident that no earthly power could stay the then Etna-like 
rapid progress of the raging torrent, which increased every moment most 
alarmingly, and spread in every direction, except toward the east. Most fortu- 
nately, it did not cross Wall, that street having become an impassable barrier, 
else the eastern and upper sections of the city might have shared the same fate 
as the lower. Who can tell where the calamity would have paused, for there 
were immense blocks of wooden buildings on Water and Cherry and Pearl 
Streets, 'up' town more than 'down,' and inflammable magazines which, 
om:e fired, could extend the common destruction over the city. 

" My own course that night was to obtain voluntary aid, and, entering the 
stores of personal friends, remove, if possible, books and papers. Such was 
absolutely the heat in front of some stores on the south side of Pearl, near 
Wall Street, that, although they were not yet on fire, it was impossible to force 
an entrance that way, and we were obliged to effect it from Water Street, as 
those buildings extended through the block. A panel in the rear door was 
broken out, and. entering through this with lanterns, we reached the counting- 
room, and then, collecting the books and invoices, placed them in a hand-cart 
and sent them away. It is impossible to imagine the fervent heat created by 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 473 

the increasing Barnes. Many of the stores were new, with iron shutters, doors 
and copper roofs and gutters, ' fire-proof of first class, and I carefully watched 
the beginning and the progress of their destruction. The heat alone, at tunes 
melted the copper roofing, and the burning liquid ran off in great drops. At 
one store, near Arthur Tappan & Co.'s, I warned some firemen of their danger 
from this unexpected source. Along here the buildings were of the first class, 
and one after another ignited under the roof, from the next edifice ; downward, 
from floor to floor, went the devouring element. As the different stories 
caught, the iron-closed shutters shone with glowing redness, until at last, 
forced open by the uncontrollable enemy within, they presented the appearance 
of immense iron furnaces in full blast. The tin and copper-bound roofs often 
seemed struggling to maintain their fast hold, gently rising and tailing and 
moving, until their rafters giving way, they mingled in the blazing crater 
below of goods, beams, floors, and walls. 

" On the north side of Hanover Square stood the fine store-house of Peter 
Remsen & Company, one of the largest East India firms, with a valuable stock. 
Here we assisted, and many light bales of goods were thrown from the upper 
windows together with a large amount of other merchandise, all heaped in the 
midst of the square, then thought to be a perfectly secure place. Vain calcula- 
tion ' Both sides of Pearl Street were soon in the furious blaze, and the ground 
became covered with living cinders. This whole pile dissolved and mingled 
in the common and increasing rain. Water Street, too, was on fire, and we 
hastened to the old firm of S. B. Harper & Sons, grocers, on Front, opposite 
Oouverneur Lane, where there appeared to be no immediate danger. 

" The father and sons had arrived, and we succeeded in removing their val- 
uables As we left the store after the last load, a terrible explosion occurred 
near by with the noise of a cannon. The earth shook. We ran for safety, not 
knowing what might follow, and took refuge on the corner of Oouverneur 
Lane nearly opposite. Waiting for a few minutes, a second explosion took place, 
then another and another. During the space, perhaps, of half an hour, shock 
after shock followed in rapid succession, accompanied with the darkest, thickest 
clouds of smoke imaginable. The explosions came from a store on Front 
Street near Old Slip, where large quantities of saltpeter in bags had been 
stored' Suddenly the whole ignited, and out leaped the flaming streams of 
these neutral salts in their own peculiar colors, from every door and window. 
Some mio-ht have called them fire-works. We have never forgotten this salt- 
peter eruption, or explosion, and never doubted since the explosive character 

" About midnight, the onward march of the uncontrolled, riotous flames had 
reached the East River, and could go no further beyond that impassable bar- 
rier Before this, the crowded shipping had fortunately sufficient time to "be 
removed from the docks and slips. One of the most grand and frightful scenes 
of the whole night was the burning of a large oil-store at the corner of Old Slip 
and South Street. It was four or more stories high, and filled with windows on 
both sides without any shutters. This was before the days of petroleum and 
kerosene, and the building was full of sperm and other oils. These fired hogs- 
head after hogshead, and over the spacious edifice resembled a vast bonfire or 
giant beacon, casting its bright beams far and wide on the river and surround- 
ing region ; but finally the confined inflammable mass, from eaves to cellar, shot 
60 



474 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

out with tremendous force through every window and opening, and soon all 
disappeared except the cracked, tottering, and falling walls. 

" The blazing, flying timbers were carried across the East River, and, in one 
instance, set fire to the roof of a house in Brooklyn, which, however, was 
quickly extinguished. Large quantities of tar and turpentine on the wharves 
becoming ignited, ran down blazing into the stream, and, floating off, made a 
sort of burning sea, many square yards in extent. The conflagration, increasing 
every moment, also extended inward toward Broadway. Great hopes were 
indulged that the Merchants' (marble) Exchange (in which, since 1827, the Post- 
office had been located) would escape. In the vast rotunda of the edifice stood 
a most beautiful white marble statue of Alexander Hamilton. Accordingly, a 
great anxiety was manifested to save this image of the great statesman. It was 
a masterpiece of art, and hundreds of willing hands, including those of a large 
number of sailors, undertook its removal, but to no purpose ; and the finely 
chiseled marble, with the solid granite of the Exchange, before long mingled 
together in common ruin. The letters of the Post-office were alone saved. 

" There was evidently now no salvation for those fine new stores on William 
Street, near by, and in Exchange Place, where the auctioneers and other com- 
mission houses had located. I sought the premises of Burns, Halliburton & 
Company, one of the most popular firms of that day. They were the agents of 
the Merrimac and other works, and had an immense valuable stock of calicoes, 
muslin, and flannels. Their large store extended from William Street to the 
grave-yard of the Garden-street Church. Most of the stock was easily removed 
to this place of imagined security, which, indeed, became the depot, for the time 
being, for millions of merchandise. We soon cleared this store. The firm were 
agents also for extra flannels. These, packed in small bales, and light, were 
readily cast from the upper stories into the grave-yard. In one of the upper 
lofts I met a member of the firm, Mr. B., one of Nature's noblemen, since dead, 
with his other partners, and he was weeping. ' Too hard,' said he, ' after all 
the toil of years, to see property thus suddenly destroyed !' ' Cheer up,' we 
replied, ' the world is still wide enough for success and fortune ;' and so it 
proved to him and many other sufferers. 

" This row of fine new stores had very flat roofs, and, imagining that a good 
view of the whole conflagration could be obtained from the top, we soon found 
our way there. Some friends in the yard, fearing that we had been locked up 
and in danger, screamed like wild Indians, pointing out a way of escape. But 
there was no danger ; and what a sight now presented itself ! From Maiden 
Lane to Coenties Slip, and from William Street to the East River, the whole 
immense area, embracing some thirteen acres, all in a raging, uncontrollable 
blaze ! To what can we compare it ? An ocean of fire, as it were, with roaring, 
rolling, burning waves, surging onward and upward, and spreading certain uni- 
versal destruction ; tottering walls and falling chimneys, with black smoke, 
hissing, crashing sounds on every side. Something like this, for we cannot 
describe it, was the fearful prospect, and, soon satisfied with the alarming, fear- 
ful view, we retreated from our high look-out. The light had spread more 
and more vividly from the fiery arena, rendering every object, far and wide, 
minutely discernible — t&e lower bay and its islands, with the shores of Long 
Island and New Jersey. Even from Staten Island the conflagration was very 
plainly seen. A sea on fire is, perhaps, the best similitude I can fancy to 
describe this grand and awful midnight winter scene. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 475 

« Not loner after we left our high stand-point it was enveloped in the uni- 
versal blaze and soon the Garden-street Church, with its spire, organ, and heaps 
:Toods st-d within and outside, was consumed. ^^^1 ut 
venerable bell which had been removed at an early period in New York In* 
Tv from the old St. Nicholas Church within the present Battery. What more 
iTLip to stop the progress of the flames ? ' became the anxious and general 

Xr consultation it was determined to 'blow up' some buildings, and the 

"S«- Slip and Coenties Lane (a narrow street) was selected 

as he proper place to begin the necessary work. On the opposite side was 

:?£ ta£4*^~ — -**■ * e exi,, T D Biow":° j— •• 

■^ ♦ onn iHt.r-Be careful or you will be blown up ! Blow and be 
:i £~J£JZL»J> reply to the warnin % But aB having Ijeen 

£ mal antlo^g S£S^ *™ the cellar to the roof, tottered, shoo,, 
and f lT A shout went up from the gazing spectators ; and at tins point the 
common danger was evidently arrested, thanks to Colonel Swift Lieutenant 
Re3ds a J Captain Mi,, of the navy, and their noble, brave sailors. Hero. 
fsm can be as much displayed at a terrible catastrophe of this kind as on the 
btody fie ll of battle, and it was to-night. This party of miners arrived about 
twTo' lock in the morning, when their important work ^^J^^ 
tinned it successfully in another direction; indeed, it was believed that the 
conflagration was at last checked by this blowing-up of the bmldings 

"Wearied with watching, labor, and anxiety, thousands wished for the 
returTof Tav, and at length a dim increasing light in the east, but enshrouded 
wthdull heavy clouds of smoke, foretold the coming morning. And what 
In unexpected melancholy spectacle to thousands did New York presen ! The 
genius firemen fr,m Philadelphia soon aftermade their appearance ; but the 
fr had been checked. The immense remains continued to blaze and burn for 
many days We could now travel around the bounds of the night's destruc- 
tion but no living being could venture through them. In many places there 
were no Unes of the sfreets to be discovered at all, as every foot of ground 
was covered with the heated bricks, timbers, and rubbish of the destroyed 

^Sy a merchant living in the upper section of the city went quietly to 
bed that night, and, strange as it may seem, when he came down-town the 
next morning, literally could not find his store, nor enough of his stock remain- 
nig to covertis hand-every yard, ell, pound, gone ! There were officia Is tate- 
ments of several stores, in each of which a quarter of a million of dollars in 
" ods was consumed, with books, notes, and accounts. New York the next 
day sat as it were, in sackcloth and ashes, and real sorrow began to appear on 



476 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



men's faces as the losses and ruin were discovered by the light of day. To 
increase, also, the public calamity, the insurance companies, except the JEtna, 
of Hartford, and the Chatham, had all become bankrupt from their severe 
losses, and could not pay. Universal gloom prevailed, but not despondency. 

" There was great anxiety expressed for the preservation of the Merchants' 
Exchange on Wall Street, and a large crowd assembled in front to watch the 
noble edifice, now in imminent danger. 




MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE BEFORE THE FIRE. 

" We have stated that the letters of the Post-office, then in its basement, 
were saved, and the marble statue of HAMILTON, placed beneath the rotunda, 
was lost. But now the fire-fiend had reached the solid structure, and all hopes 
of saving it were abandoned. The public gaze evidently centered most upon 
its cupola. Higher and higher the flames reached, and after a brief conflict the 
roof fell. A short silence ensued in the almost breathless crowd, but what 
a strange thing is ever a mob 1 Next went up— shall we call it a fiendish shout, 
as a friend standing by did at the time? Then came another pause, the lofty 
shooting fires lighting up the faces of surrounding crowds. At this moment a 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 479 

man was seen hurrying along, crying out at the top of his voice, ' Is there a 
surgeon among you, gentlemen? for God's sake, is there a surgeon?' The 
report soon spread that hundreds were in the Exchange at the moment its 
cupola fell, and those dragged out of the ruins needed a surgeon's care. Prov- 
identially, this was not the case, and that which was still more wonderful and 
striking, no fatal or serious accident occurred during the whole of this awful 
December calamity. 

" During the conflagration, then under full headway toward Broad Street, 
the presence of mind of one man saved much property. This was Downing, 
the oyster king, of Broad-street fame. Water was out of the question, and at 
this emergency he thought of his supplies of vinegar, which were large, and 
with careful application by pailful after pailful, a large amount of property 
was saved in that direction from the general destruction. To his good sense, 
and credit, and worthy memory, we record this generous act. 

" I forgot to mention one circumstance connected with the destruction of the 
Garden-street Church, and have been reminded of it by a friend who was 
among the very last persons to leave the sacred edifice. Many, many a solemn 
dirge had been played upon that fine organ at the burial of the dead, and now, 
the holy temple on fire, some one commenced performing upon it its own 
funeral dirge, and continued it until the lofty ceiling was in a blaze. The music 
ceased, and in a short time the beautiful edifice, with its noble instrument and 
immense quantities of goods stored inside and out, were all irrecoverably 
gone, nothing escaping save the long-sleeping dust and bones of the buried 
dead. 

" I forgot also to mention in their proper place some items about the old ' Ton- 
tine Coffee house.' This was the ' Exchange ' of the city. The old folks may 
remember its rough but pleasant keeper, old Buyden. We only have heard of 
his fame, and it is related of him that, when the first anthracite coal was offered 
for sale in New York, he. tried it in the hall of the Tontine ; but he pronounced 
the new article worse than nothing, for he had put one scuttle into the grate, 
and then another, and after they were consumed he took up two scuttlefuls 
of stones. 

" In the great fire of 1835, this well-known public edifice came very near 
sharing the common destruction. The engines had almost entirely ceased 
working, and the Tontine was discovered to be on fire in its broad cornices, at 
the corner of Wall and Water Streets. This created still greater alarm, for 
the burning of this large building would destroy the hopes of saving the east- 
ern section of the city, if not more. Two solitary engines, with what little 
water they managed to obtain, were throwing their feeble and useless streams 
upon the flaming stores opposite, when Mr. Oliver Hull, of our city, calling 
their attention to the burning cornice, generously promised to donate one hun- 
dred dollars to the Firemen's Fund ' if they would extinguish that blaze.' 
Seeing the threatening danger, they immediately made a pile of boxes which 
had been removed from the adjacent stores, from the top of which, by great 
efforts, a stream reached the spot and quickly put out the alarming flame. Mr. 
1 1 nil is still living, and, thanks to him for his wise counsel and generosity at 
that, trying moment, and gratitude to the noble firemen who so successfully 
averted the awful progress of the destroying element from crossing Wall 
Street and ending, who can tell where? They were frequently told of the 



480 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

vital importance of preventing the conflagration extending beyond this limit, 
and labored accordingly, and with the happiest results. 

" As already stated, no lives were lost during the conflagration ; still, we 
remember that, shortly afterward, one of our most widely-known and respected 
fellow-citizens passed away in death. This was John Laing, often called ' Hon- 
est John Laing,' the senior partner of Laing, Turner & Co., of the old New 
York Gazette and General Advertiser ; and his last illness — of paralysis or 
apoplexy — was hastened by the excitement and devastation of this great pub- 
lic calamity. He was a gentleman of the old-school queue-li&ir style. 

" In the estimated thirteen acres of the burnt district, only one store escaped 
entire. This was occupied by the well-known John A. Moore of this day, in 
the iron trade on Water Street, near old Slip. Watched inside, and fire-proof, 
in their wildest career, the rapid flames seemed, as it were, to overleap the 
building, destroying all others. There it stood, solitary and alone, amidst sur- 
rounding entire destruction, as a sad monument stands alone amid the general 
ruin. 

" As many as three or four buildings were blown up to stop the progress of 
the fire, all other efforts having failed ; and if such a measure' had been resorted 
to earlier, great destruction of property might possibly have been prevented. 
There was also a want of powder, although, unknown to the citizens, a vessel 
loaded with the article lay anchored in the stream. At last, Mr. Charles King 
generously volunteered to visit the Navy Yard for a supply, and returned with 
a band of marines and sailors. The explosions went on fearfully and success- 
fully. Up and down went the mined structures, two barrels of powder under 
each, until no flames were left, no means of spreading the fiery element to the 
next houses. 

" The extent of the fire in December, 1835, may be imagined from its sev- 
eral limits. These, commencing at Coffee-house Slip, extended along South 
Street to Coenties Slip, thence to near Broad, along William to Wall, and down 
that street to the East River on the south side, with the exception of Nos. 51, 
53, 55, 57, 59, and 61, along where the new splendid banking-house of Brown 
Brothers & Company now stands. This burnt district embraced some thir- 
teen acres, in which nearly seven hundred houses were leveled to the ground 
in a single winter's night, with a loss of seventeen million dollars ; four mill- 
ions, it was calculated, was the value of the buildings, and thirteen, of the 
goods. During a few hours this vast amount disappeared, either in the flaming 
atmosphere or in ashes upon the earth — the most costly goods and products 
from every portion of our globe. Some merchants, retiring to bed wealthy in the 
evening, and perhaps so dreaming, found themselves the next morning either 
ruined or their estates seriously injured. In the impressive language of Script- 
ure, their riches had taken wings and flown away in a single night — ware- 
house, stock, notes, and books, all gone beyond recovery. 

" After the general consternation had somewhat subsided, a public meeting 
assembled in Mr. Lawrence's office (the Mayor's), City Hall, to consider what 
should be done under the circumstances. At this meeting, committees were 
appointed to provide means for the relief of the most necessitous cases, and to 
ascertain the condition of the insurance companies, and the amount of the losses 
as far as practicable. The writer acted as secretary of this last committee, and 
the losses absolutely stated from various firms and parties amounted to seven- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 4S1 

teen millions of dollars. In many cases they wsre total. Some would not name 
their damages, and among them very large houses; and, although the seven- 
teen millions were reported by the losers, still, the committee estimated the 
real loss at twenty millions of dollars. To increase the difficulties, all the 
insurance companies, except the two mentioned in a former article, failed to 
meet the demands against them, but paid as much as they were able, and this 
consumed all their assets, leaving them bankrupt. This result caused great 
distress among a class who had been otherwise unharmed — old people, widows, 
orphans, and others, whose income came from fire-insurance dividends ; these 
were now at an end, and many suffered severely in consequence. Among the 
first acts of the public committee was to relieve this class. 

" In respect to the entire loss, some accounts place the number of buildings 
at five hundred and twenty-eight ; others, higher. Let us visit the ' burnt dis- 
trict,' as it was then named, commencing at the eastern limits. Coffee-house 
Slip, and South, Front, and Water Streets, were burned down from Wall Street 
to Coenties Slip, Pearl consumed from the same point to Coenties Alley, and 
there, as we have seen, stopped by the blowing-up of a building. This was 
the well-known crowded region of the dry-goods importers and jobbers, mer- 
chant princes in the granite palaces, filled with the richest merchandise, 
domestic and imported. The destruction on Stone Street extended down from 
William to then No. 32, one side, and to No. 39 on the other. Beaver was 
destroyed half-way to Broad. Exchange Place was burned from Hanover 
Street to within three doors of Broad, and here, also, the flames were arrested 
by blowing up a house. The loss on William Street was complete, commencing 
at Wall and ending in South, and on both sides, including the market in Old 
Slip. Wall Street was devastated on the south side, from William to South, 
excepting, as we have noticed, Nos. 51, 53, 55, 57, 59, and 61. The greatest 
efforts were made along here to prevent the flames reaching the banks and 
offices on the opposite side. Here was located the Courier and Enquirer office ; 
and we well remember the noble person of its editor, Colonel Webb, as he stood 
on a prominent, elevated place, exhorting the people to renewed diligence and 
efforts to save the city. All the intermediate streets, lanes, and alleys within 
these limits were also swept away by the destroying element. The following 
statement will be found, we imagine, nearly accurate, of the houses and stores 
leveled to the earth : 

On Wall Street 26 On Old Slip 33 

On South Street 76 On Stone Street 40 

On Front Street 80 On Mill Street 38 

On Water Street 76 On Braver Street 23 

On Pearl Street 79 On Hanover Street - 16 

On Exchange Place 62 On Coenties Slip 16 

On Gouverneur's Lane 20 On Ilanover Square 3 

On Jones's Lane 10 On Cuyler's Alley 20 

On Exchange 31 

On William Street 44 Total 674 

" Six hundred and seventy-four tenements were thus consumed in a few short 
hours, and the far greater part were occupied by New York's largest shipping 
and wholesale dry-goods merchants, besides many grocers. 

" This was a terrible day for the commercial emporium of our land. The 
destruction had been fearful, and so were the consequences. In a few months 
61 



482 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

the United States hanks suspended payment ; then followed the commercial dis- 
tress of 1837, and for a time business seemed paralyzed. Next came bankruptcy 
after bankruptcy in quick succession, and soon the banks of our State stopped 
payment for one year. The Legislature legalized this necessary public act. 
What a disastrous moment ! what terrible reverses ! what gloomy forebodings 
and prospects ! But the most wonderful fact of all these fearful times was the 
energy and elasticity of the New-Yorkers. Not long depressed by their misfor- 
tunes, a reaction took place, and before many months the city literally arose 
from her ashes, and acres of splendid granite, marble, brown-stone, and brick 
stores filled the entire ' burnt district.' Business, trade, and commerce revived 
more briskly than ever before. How truly astonishing, and how noble and 
praiseworthy ! What shall Ave call our native city — the Giant of the Western 
World, the Queen of America, the Commercial Emporium, or by what other 
name ? Her wharves and streets are now visited by men from every region of 
the world, and her white canvas gladdens every ocean. In vain do we search 
for a chapter in ancient or modern history of such a conflagration and its losses, 
and of rapid recovery from all its evils, with increasing prosperity, as we find 
in the great fire of New York in December, 1835. Well may New-Yorkers be 
proud of their noble city, her enterprise, her trade, and her ' merchant princes.' " 

The great extent of the "burnt district," and the im- 
mense amount of valuable goods and property of various 
kinds which remained among the ruins, exposed to depre- 
dations, required the exercise of energies beyond the ordi- 
nary civil powers ; and, such an organization as the present 
"Insurance Patrol" being at that time unknown, the 
Mayor accepted the services of the " National Guard " * 
for guard duty in the emergency. " A line of sentinels 
was accordingly formed from the foot of Wall Street, up 
Wall, and to the foot of Broad Street, outside of the limits 
of the devastated district, rendering entire protection to 
the exposed property during the night of their service. 
The narrator recollects well his two ' turns ' on post dur- 
ing the night, at the corner of the ruins of the old Mer- 
chants' Exchange, at Hanover Street, in an exceedingly 
cold and driving storm of sleet and rain, and the gloomy 
and dreadful appearance of the smoldering ruins extended 
over a space of upward of fifty acres, broken here and 
there by a fitful name from a half-smothered fire. He 
recollects as well, too, the relief of toasting his toes, in 

* This name was, in 1847, changed into the " Seventh Regiment." 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 483 

the ' oif ' intervals, at the glowing fire, and refreshing the 
inner man with the genial hospitality of the noted ' Auc- 
tion Hotel' of George W. Brown, in Water Street, which 
was the head-quarters of one wing of the regiment for the 
occasion."* 

As soon as the first excitement had subsided, a public 
meeting of the citizens of New York convened, in pursu- 
ance of a call from the Mayor, at the City Hall, on Sat- 
urday, the 19th of December, at noon. The meeting was 
called to order by Judge Irving, upon whose motion the 
•Mayor took the chair. 

The following gentlemen were then appointed vice- 
presidents on the motion of General Prosper M. Wet- 
more : Albert Gallatin, Preserved Fish, Louis McLane, 
George Newbould, Isaac Bronson, Enos T. Throop, Camp- 
bell P. White, John T. Irving, Samuel Hicks, George 
Griswold, James G. King, Benjamin L. Swan, Jacob Loril- 
lard, and Stephen Allen. On motion of General Jacob 
Morton, the following secretaries were also appointed : 
Jonathan Goodhue, Prosper M. Wetmore, John S. Crary, 
John A. Stephens, Jacob Harvey, Reuben Withers, Dud- 
ley Selden, Samuel B. Ruggles, George Wilson, Samuel 
Cowdrey, James Lee, and John L. Graham. The meet- 
ing was addressed by William L. Stone, Prosper M. Wet- 
more, and several other prominent citizens, after which 
the following resolutions were, on motion of James G. 
King, unanimously adopted : 

" Resolved, That while the citizens of New York lament over the ruin 
which has left desolate the most valuable part of this city, and deeply sympa- 
thize with the numerous sufferers, it becomes them not to repine, but to unite 

* Asher Taylor, in his Recollections of the Seventh Regiment. Chief-Justice 
Daly, also, was one of the guard on this occasiou. The head-quarters of his 
regiment was at the Shakespeare Tavern, where, during the night, they were 
all regaled with bread and cheese. The Judge had a tussle, on his beat, 
with a negro who was carrying off a case of silks, in which the former came 
off the victor. 



484 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

in a vigorous exertion to repair the loss ; that the extent of her commerce, the 
number, wealth, and enterprise of her citizens, justify, under the blessing of 
Divine Providence, a primary reliance upon her own resources. 

" Resolved, That we consider it the duty of our citizens and moneyed institu- 
tions, who stand in the relation of creditors to those who have directly or indi 
rectly suffered by the late fire, to extend to them the utmost forbearance and 
lenity." 

On motion of Dudley Selden, Esq., it was further 

" Resolved, That a committee of the Mayor and one hundred and fifty citi- 
zens be appointed to ascertain the extent and probable value of the property 
destroyed, and how far the sufferers are protected by insurance. Also, with 
power to make application to Congress for relief by an extension of credit for 
debts due the United States, and a return or remission of duties on goods 
destroyed ; and also to ask such other aid from the general, State, and city gov- 
ernments as may be deemed expedient. Also to ascertain the origin and cause 
of the fire, and what change, if any, should be made, either in the regulating 
of streets, the erection of buildings, or the arrangements of the Fire Depart- 
ment, to prevent a recurrence of similar calamities, and take such other meas- 
ures as the emergency may demand. 

" Resolved, That the Committee to be appointed take the earliest and most 
effectual measures to ascertain and relieve the necessities of those who have 
been reduced to want by the recent unfortunate event." 

On motion of Colonel Murray, it was also 

" Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be, and they are hereby, tend- 
ered to the citizens of Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and Newark for the sponta- 
neous expression of their sympathy in our misfortunes, and that they be espe- 
cially tendered to the firemen of those cities, who, with a promptitude and 
kindness unexampled, have left their homes at this inclement season to offer 
their services, and which they are now tendering at the scene of the calamity." 

On motion of Prosper M. Wetmore, it was finally 

" Resolved, That the members of the two boards of the Common Council be 
ex officio members of the committee to be appointed." 

The Committee was then announced as follows :* 

Cornelius W. Lawrence Albert Gallatin, Preserved Fish, Samuel Hicks, 
Benjamin L. Swan, Dudley Selden, Jonathan Goodhue, Saul Alley, Prosper M. 
Wetmore, John T. Irving, John Pintard, George Newbould, Samtiel B. Ruggles, 
James G. King, Wm. B. Astor, George Griswold, Enos T. Troop, Samuel Cow- 
drey, Thomas J. Oakley, George Wilson, Wm. T. McCown, John G. Coster, 

* The reader will not fail to remark that this committee was composed of 
men whose names are household words in the history of our city, and are 
identified with its interests and prosperity. Hence the propriety of giving 
them in full in the text. The names in italics represent those who are living 
at the present time (1872). 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 485 

Walter Bowne, James F. Boorman, Louis McLane, Jacob Lorillard, John S. 
Crary, Jacob Harvey, Reuben Withers, Ogden HofFman, Charles King, Edward 
Sanford, John W. Leavitt, Adam Treadwell, John Leonard, George S. Rob- 
bins, Wm. Neilson, Stephen Whitney, Joseph Bouchaud, Jacob Morton, John 
Wilson, Mordecai M. Noah, Philip Hone, William L. Stone, Rensselaer Havens, 
Charles W. Sanford, Wm. Van Wyck, D. F. Manice, John Kelly, H. C. De 
Rham, Isaac Bronson, Campbell B. White, John A. Stevens, James Lee, 
George Douglass, Stephen Allen, John Fleming, John B. Lawrence, Wm. B. 
Townsend, Charles H. Russell, James Heard, Charles Graham, George Ireland, 
John Y. Cebra, Samuel Jones, Charles Augustus Davis, Robert C. Wetmore, 
James D. P. Ogden, Andrew Warner, David Hall, James Conner, Robert White, 
Richard Pownell, Joseph Blunt, Samuel Ward, F. B. Cutting, John H. How- 
land, John Lang, Daniel Jackson, J. Palmer, Richard Riker, James Roosevelt, 
Jr., James Monroe, Richard McCarthy, Isaac S. Hone, Peter A. Jay, Amos But- 
ler, Joseph D. Beers, David Bryson, Samuel Swartwout, Walter P. Jones, Philo 
L. Mills, Morris Robinson, Benjamin McVickar, John Haggerty, Charles Den- 
nison, George W. Lee, Wm Churchill, George Lovett, G. A. Worth, Edwin 
Lord, B. L. Woolley, Wm. Mitchell, Burr Wakeman, Wm. Legjxett, James B. 
Murray, Peter A. Cowdrey, John L. Graham, George D. Strong, Jonathan 
Lawrence, Cornelius Heyer, James Lawson, Samuel S. Howland, James Watson 
Webb, Wm. M. Price, John Delafield, James McCride, M. M. Quackenboss, B. 
M. Brown, Wm. B. Crosby, G. C. Verplanck, Wm. Beach Lawrence, Joseph L. 
Josephs, S. H. Foster, T. T. Kissam, Robert Bogardus, Wm. Howard, Luman 
Reed, Robert Smith, M. Ulshoeffer, Samuel Thompson, Robert C. Cornell, P. G. 
Stuyvesant, David Hadden, Benjamin Strong, Wm. P. Hall, Isaac Townsend, 
Charles P. Clinch, Rufus L. Lord, J. R. Satterlee, David S. Jones, David Austin, 
Seth Geer, Robert Lenox, Perez Jones, Wm. Turner. 

Scarcely had this committee been appointed when a 
communication was received from the President of the 
Board of Trade, announcing the names of a committee 
from that body to co-operate in the objects of the meeting. 

On motion of Mr, P. M. Wetmore, it was accordingly 

Resolved, That the following gentlemen, deputed from the Board of Trade, 
be added to the committee, viz., Gabriel P. Disosway, Robert Jaffrey, Silas 
Brown, N. H. Weed, George Underbill, D. A. Cushman, Meigs D. Benjamin, 
Marcus Wilbur, and Thomas Denny. 

Thereupon the committee, " having been requested to 
meet at seven o'clock in the evening at the Mayor's office, 
adjourned." Terrible, however, as was this calamity, New 
York city was by no means crushed by the blow. " Great 
as the loss has been," said a writer,* a few days after the 

* " Foster's ] account of the | conflagration | of the principal portion of the 



486 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

fire, " we are happy to announce to our friends at a 
distance, that our merchants and others who have suffered 
are in good spirits, and fully determined promptly to 
redeem their loss. All despondency, if it ever existed, is 
at an end. Smiling faces and cheerful countenances meet 
us at every corner, and demonstrate that there is an elas- 
ticity in the character of our people which always enables 
them to rise above the most overwhelming evils. The 
same spirit which made New York what it is, will enable 
it quietly to bear and nobly to triumph over even the 
present calamity. Indeed, such is the tone of the public 
mind, that we expect to see business as brisk as ever in the 
spring ; and within two years the entire district destroyed 
will be rebuilt on a more permanent and convenient plan" — 
a prophecy which was more than fulfilled ; since, in 1836, 
according to an assessment made November 12th, of that 
year, the value of the real and personal estate in New York 
city was $327,988,780, of which the proportion of real estate 
was $253,201,191, and of personal $74,787,589. This 
was an increase of $20,183,824 over the assessments of 
1832-'33.* 

In the month of February, 1836, the peace of the lower 
part of the city was endangered by a " strike " among 

the stevedores and other "long-shore" workmen. 

After parading the streets and along the docks for 
several days, their demonstrations became so violent that 
the civil authorities were roused to vigorous action. The 
Mayor called upon the Twenty-seventh regiment, which, 
with ball-cartridges and a bountiful supply of ammuni- 

fhst I ward of the city of New York ] on the night of the 16th of December, 
1835." The two cuts given in the text, representing the ruins of the Mer- 
chants' Exchange, are from this pamphlet. 

* files' Register, Nov. 20th, 1836. Compare the above assessment with the 
fact that the taxable property of New York Island in 1871, reported at 
less than half its value, reaches nearly a thousand millions, and the annual tax 
twenty-five millions. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 487 

tion, promptly turned out on the morning of the 24th of 
February, and took up its quarters in the court-rooms 
of the City Hall. This fact coming to the knowledge of 
the rioters, order was restored, and the regiment was dis- 
missed in the evening. 

This same year witnessed, also, the destruction of the 
" Old Shakespeare Tavern," the ancient stamping-ground 
of the " National Guards," and for many years intimately 
associated with the military history of the city. It stood 
at the south-west corner of Fulton and Nassau Streets (the 
site [1872] of the present Commercial Advertiser building). 
It was originally a low, old-fashioned, massive edifice, 
built of small, yellow bricks, two stories high, with dor- 
mer-windows on the roof. The entrance, in its early days, 
was through a green baize door on Nassau Street — an 
entry running through the building, with rooms on both 
sides. " The Tap " was in the south front room, on 
Nassau Street, and was fitted up in one corner with 
a circular bar of the old English fashion. The build- 
ing was erected many years before the Revolution, by 
John Leake, a commissary in the French war,* but, in 
1822, a modern extension on Fulton Street, three stories 
high, was added. 

On the second story there was a room for public meet- 
ings and military drills, and on the third story there was 
also another room, arched, for concerts and balls, and for 
the accommodation of the political, literary, and musical 
patrons of the house. It was kept in its palmiest days by 
Thomas Hodgkinson, an Englishman by birth, who had 
come over to the United States when quite young. t He 



* This Leake is said to have saved the life of the Duke of Cumberland at 
the Battle of Dettingen. He was also at the siege of Louisburg, under Sir 
William Pepperell. 

f Hodgkinson was an officer of the Second regiment of N. Y. S. Artillery, 



488 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

was a brother of the celebrated comedian and vocalist, 
John Hodgkinson, who was at one time manager of the 
old Park Theater. Hodgkinson bought the house in 
1808, and under his management it soon became and long 
continued a great resort for the wits of the day, and was 
celebrated for the superiority of its wines and the quiet 
comfort and elegance of its private suppers. 

The " Shakespeare Tavern," in fact, was to New York 
what the " Mermaid " was to London in the days of Shakes- 
peare and Queen Bess, or, later, the " St. James Coffee- 
house " and the "Turk's Head" in the time of Reynolds, 
Garrick, and Goldsmith. Within its walls, Hugh Game and 
James Cheetham have broken many a lance over the polit- 
ical topics of the day. In its tap-room " Ready-Money Prov- 
ost" has been seen quietly sipping a mug of foaming flip 
as he meditated over some fresh scheme for cheating the 
revenue.* Here, De Witt Clinton was wont to discuss his 

and distinguished for his devotion to the cause of his adopted country in 1812. 
At his death, which occurred on the day of the reception of General Lafayette, 
in 1824, he was a captain, and was buried with military honors. Two of his 
sons served in the " National Guard." — Recollections of the Seventh Regiment, 
for the use of two copies of which book (now exceedingly rare) the author is 
indebted to the courtesy of Herman G. Carter, Esq., and to the publishing 
house of J. M. Bradstreet & Son. 

* " Ready-Money Provost," or David Provost — a man long known as the 
chief of a gang of smugglers who infested Long Island Sound — acquired his 
compound appellation in consequence of the abundance of money which he 
always had by him, even in times of the greatest scarcity. One of his strong- 
holds for secreting his contraband articles was at Hallett's Cove, L. I. He was 
for many years such a character, that I here give a conversation said to have 
been held between him and a gentleman, as illustrative both of the man and of 
the ideas held by his class upon smuggling: 

" I have not the honor of an acquaintance with you, Mr Provost ; but I have 
heard much of you and your occupation." 

" No reflections, if you please, Mr. Talcott : my occupation is an affair of my 
own : ' Free Trade' 's my maxim : we fowt with Great Britain for liberty, and 
agin the tea-tax and the custom-houses. I got a bullet in my leg, and like to 
have had a baggonet in my bread-basket at the battle of Brooklyn, over there 
where the Jarsey Blues was shot. I was agin the custom-houses then, and I'm 
agin them now. Well : we whipped the English, and the Hessians to boot, 
and got our liberties, they tell us. But blast my picture, if we aint more pes- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 489 

pet project, the Erie Canal ; here, Fitz-Greene Halleck, 
and Sands, and Percival,* and Paulding, and Willis Gay- 

tered and plagued with custom-houses now than we was then — and be hanged 
to 'em ! " 

" I meant no reflections, Mr. Provost," replied Mr. Talcott ; " but as you 
said you supposed you were a stranger to me, I only intended to say that you 
had been pointed out to me as a smug — I beg pardon — as a — " 

"Ay, smuggler — say it out! They turn up their noses, and call me smug- 
gler, who have never cheated a man in my life ; while they fail for their thou- 
sands, and ride in their coaches all the while besides ! Many a time have I lent 
the scoundrels the hard chink — the real Caroluses — to keep them out of limbo ; 
when, before they had turned the next corner, they would call me smuggler ! — 
just because I'm for making an honest living by FREE trade. There's Con- 
gress has just been introducing a Tariff, as they call it, and Madison, and Car- 
roll, and old Roger Sherman, and all on 'em are voting for it. But by the" — 
and here, with flashing eyes, the smuggler swore a great oath which we will 
not repeat — " ' Ready-Money Provost ' will stand by his ' reserved rights,' as 
they call them away there in Virginny, and nullify the custom-house laws, as 
long as the ' Pot ' boils in Hellgate !" 

" Never mind," replied Talcott, in a conciliating tone ; " we will waive that 
subject. I am no merchant, and know little of the mysteries of trade or of 
smuggling. And if — " 

" Smuggling, again ! I tell you, Mr. Talcott, you must not make my Jarsey 
blood boil too hot. I'm an honest man, that pays his debts, and ruins no friend 
who has the kindness to underwrite for me. I am only a free-trader, — actinc 
as a broker between the importer and the jobber, just to help 'em get clear of 
the duties which Government puts on to pay their idle officers. It's no harm to 
cheat the Government, — particklar when one gets along without swearing till 
all's blue in the custom-house. And, as betwixt man and man, I've never taken 
anybody in — man nor woman nother — and, what's more, I've always stuck to 
my engagements." 

Provost, notwithstanding his roughness and questionable occupation, mar- 
ried the widow of James Alexander, and mother of Lord Stirling, an eminent 
American officer in the Revolutionary War. He was buried in the family vault, 
cut in a rocky knoll in Jones's Wood, near the house in which he lived the latter 
portion of his life. It is now a dilapidated ruin near the foot of Seventy-first 
Street. The marble slab which he placed over the vault in memory of his wife 
(and which commemorates him, also) lies neglected over the broken walls. 
Near the site of the tomb, the Germans, who love the open air, go thither on 
Sunday, in large numbers, and tents, wherein lagerMer is sold, form conspic- 
uous objects in that still half-sylvan retreat. Provost died in 1791, aged ninety 
years. 

* In the spring of 1832, S. G. Goodrich was in New York, and invited Mr. 
Cooper, the novelist, to dine with Percival at the City Hotel. Mr. Goodrich 
thus describes their appearance: "It is not easy to conceive of two persons 
more strongly contrasting with each other. As they sat side by side at the 
table, I noted the difference. Mr. Cooper was in person solid, robust, athletic ; 
63 



490 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

lord Clark, have met in social converse and passed many 
a merry jest and brilliant repartee ; here, too, McDonald 
Clark, the " Mad Poet," * has often startled the little circle 
gathered around him by one of his strange outbursts of 
poetic frenzy ; here, some of the liveliest sallies of the 
Croaker and most touching passages in Yamoyden were 
conceived and brought forth; and here, also, Sands first 
recited to his friends Stone, Verplanck, and John Inman, 
his last and most remarkable poem — The Dead of 1832. t 
Henceforth, let no one say that New York has no memo- 
ries save those of the temples of the money-changer. The 
old Shakespeare Tavern has entertained coteries composed 

in voice, manly ; in manner, earnest, emphatic, almost dictatorial — with some- 
thing of self-assertion bordering on egotism. * * * Pereival, on the contrary, 
was tall and thin ; his chest, sunken ; his limbs, long and feeble ; his hair, 
silken and sandy ; his complexion, light and feminine ; his eyes, large and 
spectral ; his whole air startled ; his attitudes, shy and shrinking ; his voice, 
abashed and whispering. Mr. Cooper ate like a man of excellent appetite and 
vigorous digestion : Pereival scarce seemed to know that he was at the table. 
Cooper took his wine as if his lips appreciated it: Pereival swallowed his evi- 
dently without knowing or caring whether it was wine or water. Yet these 
two men conversed pleasantly together. After a time, Pereival was drawn out, 
and the stores of his mind were poured forth as from a cornucopia. I could 
see Cooper's gray eye dilate with delight and surprise." 

Pereival, as is well known, was very eccentric, even if he was not at times 
deranged. He was more free in conversation with Mrs. Colonel Stone than 
perhaps with any other person. He was subject to deep dejections ; and, when he 
was quite " in the depths," he would come to her, usually spending several 
days at the house ; but he came and went suddenly. One morning, upon com- 
ing down to breakfast, she found a piece of poetry. It was on her plate ; and 
he was not seen nor heard of for some time afterward. This piece of poetry, 
entitled "Musings at the House of a Friend," does not appear in his published 
poems, and is, therefore, given at the close of Appendix No. V. 

* For several curious anecdotes of McDonald Clark, see Appendix No. V. 

f This poem appeared in the Commercial Advertiser but a few days before 
Sands's death. " By a singular coincidence," says Mr. Verplanck, in his ele- 
gantly written sketch of the poet, " he chose for his theme the triumphs of 
Death and Time over the men who had died in the year just closing^Ooethe, 
Cuvier, Spurzheim, Bentham, and Walter Scott ; Champollion, ' who read the 
mystic lore of the Pharaohs ;' Crabbe, the poet of purity ; Adam Clarke, the 
learned Methodist ; — a goodly company, whom he himself was destined to join 
before the year had passed away." 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 



491 



of as choice spirits as ever supped at the " Turk's Head." 
True, all is now changed. Where formerly it stood, the 
hum of business and the rattling of drays have succeeded 




provost's tomb, jones's wood. 

to the quiet that was once so grateful to the wearied 
frame; and a bare brick building usurps the site of the 
quaint vine-clad tavern. But, though all traces of it have 



492 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

vanished, it will live in its traditions, which, like the ivy 
that formerly covered its portals, shall forever be entwined 
around the hearts of future generations. 1 * 



* On the death of its proprietor in 1824, the house passed to his connection 
by marriage, James C. Stoneall (afterward an alderman of the Second Ward), 
by whom the interior was remodeled and modernized, and a handsome bar- 
room fitted up in one corner, with an entrance on Fulton Street. Like his 
predecessor, Stoneall maintained the character of the house until the widening 
of Fulton Street caused its demolition. 



CHAPTER IX. 

It was during the mayoralty of Cornelius W. Law- 
rence that the great Flour Riot took place — a riot which, 
although I can find no mention of it save in the contem- 
poraneous records of the day, at first threatened the most 
serious destruction to life and property. 

The winter of 1836— '37 had been one of unusual 
severity. In addition to this, a scarcity of the cereal 
crops throughout the country, the preceding season (not 
more than one-half the usual quantity having been har- 
vested), had raised flour to twelve and fifteen dollars a 
barrel — at that time an enormous price. The poorer class 
of citizens, as a matter of course, suffered greatly ; and a 
mistaken idea having got abroad that a few of the larger 
flour and grain dealers had taken advantage of the scarcity 
to buy up all the flour in the city, there was added mental 
to physical distress. But, granting all this, it is extremely 
doubtful whether these feelings would have culminated in 
actual deeds of violence, had not two political factions — the 
Loco-foco and the Temperance — for their own ends, fanned 
the embers of discord into a blaze. The former, through 
their party organs, labored to stir up the evil passions in 
the bosoms of the laboring classes by the war-cry of " the 
poor against the rich ; " while the latter attributed the 
scarcity of grain to the distilleries. A few weeks before 



1837. 



494 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

the riot, a public meeting had been held at the New York 
Tabernacle,* to consider and act upon the high price of 
grain and provisions, on which occasion the speeches 
evinced considerable heat, though they were not of an 
openly incendiary character. The fires, however, were 
only smoldering, and, accordingly, on Friday, the 10th of 
February, 1837, a notice was published in some 
of the newspapers, and conspicuously placarded 
through the city, of a meeting to be held in the Park on 
the afternoon of the next Monday, February 13th. The 
notice itself, as will be seen, was couched in language 
of a highly injudicious character, and well calculated to 
inflame the minds of the unthinking, and lead them into 
the excesses which they afterward committed. 
The following is a fac-simile of the notice : 

BREAD! MEAT! RENT! FUEL!! 

Their Prices Must Come Down ! 
The voice of the people shall be heard and zvill prevail. 
The people will meet in the Park, rain or shine, at 
4 o'clock Monday Afternoon, jg^f 
To enquire into the cause of the present unexampled dis- 
tress, and to devise a suitable remedy. All friends of 
humanity, determined to resist monopolists and extortion- 
ists, are invited to attend. 

Moses Jacques, Daniel Gorham, 

Paulus Hedl, John Windt, 

Daniel A. Robertson, Alexander Ming, Jr., 

Warden Hayward, Elijah F. Crane. 

New York, February 10^, 1837. 

* The New York Tabernacle, built in 1835-36, and designed for a free 
church, was torn down in 1856, and re-erected in 1859 by the society, on the 
corner of Sixth Avenue and Thirty-fourth Street. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 495 

Under the above call, a mob of about six thousand 
people collected together, at the time appointed, in front 
of the City Hall, combining within itself all the elements 
of riot and revolution. Moses Jacques was selected as the 
chairman. Order was not the presiding genius, and the 
meeting was divided into various groups, each of which 
was harangued by some favorite demagogue after his own 
fashion and on his own account. 

Conspicuous among the orators was Alexander Ming, 
Jr., and other speakers, who, in a most exciting manner, 
denounced the landlords and the holders of flour for the 
prices of rents and provisions. One of these orators, after 
working upon the passions of his audience until they were 
fitted for the work of spoliation and outrage, expressly 
directed the popular vengeance against Mr. Eli Hart, who 
was one of the most extensive flour-dealers in the city. 
" Fellow-citizens," he exclaimed, " Mr. Hart has now fifty- 
three thousand barrels of flour in his store. Let us go 
and offer him eight dollars a barrel, and if he does not 
take it" — here some person touched the orator on the 
shoulder, and he suddenly lowered his voice, and finished 
his sentence by saying, u we shall depart from him in 
mace" This hint was sufficient. A large body of the 
rioters at once marched off in the direction of Mr. Hart's 
store, situated on Washington Street, between Dey and 
Cortlandt. The store was a large brick building, and had 
three wide but strong iron doors upon the street. Being 
apprised of the approach of the mob, the clerks secured 
the doors and windows, but not until the middle door had 
been forced, and some thirty barrels of flour rolled into 
the street, and their heads staved in. At this point Mr. 
Hart arrived on the ground with a posse of officers from 
the police. The latter were immediately assailed by a 
portion of the mob in Dey Street, their clubs wrested 
from them and shivered to pieces. The numbers of the 



496 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

mob not being large enough at this time, the officers suc- 
ceeded in entering the store, and for a short while delayed 
the work of destruction. The Mayor next arrived on the 
scene, and attempted to remonstrate with the infatuated 
multitude on the folly of their conduct, but to no purpose ; 
their numbers were rapidly increasing, and his Honor was 
assailed with all sorts of missiles, and with such fury that 
he was compelled to retire. Meanwhile, large reinforce- 
ments of rioters having arrived from the Park, the officers 
were driven from the field, and the store carried by as- 
sault — the first iron door torn from its hinges being used 
as a battering-ram against the others. The rioters, like 
enraged and famished tigers, now rushed in ; the windows 
and doors of the upper lofts were wrenched open, and the 
work of destruction again commenced. Barrels of flour 
by dozens, by fifties, and by hundreds were thrown in 
rapid succession from the windows, and the heads of those 
which did not break in falling were at once staved in. 
Intermingled with the flour were sacks of wheat by the 
hundred, which were cast into the street, and their con- 
tents emptied upon the pavement. About one thousand 
bushels of wheat and six hundred barrels of flour were 
thus wantonly and foolishly destroyed. The most active 
of those engaged in this were foreigners, debased by intem- 
perance and crime — indeed, the greater part of the assem- 
blage was of exotic growth ; but there were probably a 
thousand others standing by and abetting their incendiary 
labors. Amidst the falling and bursting of the barrels 
and sacks of wheat, numbers of women were engaged, 
like the crones who strip the dead on the battle-field, fill- 
ing the boxes and baskets with which they were provided, 
and their aprons, with flour, and making off with it. One 
of the destructives, a boy named James Roach, was seen 
upon one of the upper window-sills, throwing barrel after 
barrel into the street, and crying out with every throw, 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



491 



" Here goes flour at eight dollars a barrel !"* Early in 
the assault, Mr. Hart's counting-room was entered, his 
books and papers seized and scattered to the winds.t 

Night had now closed upon the scene ; but the work 
of destruction did not cease until strong bodies of police 
arrived, followed soon after by detachments of troops. 
The store was then closed, and several of the rioters 
were arrested and sent to the Bridewell, under charge of 




THE OLD BRIDEWELL. 



the Chief of Police. On his way to the prison, the latter, 
with his assistants, was assailed, his coat torn off him, and 
several prisoners were rescued. 

Before the close of the proceedings at Hart's store, the 
cry of " Meech " was raised, whereupon a detachment of 
the rioters crossed over to Coenties Slip to attack the 

* This boy, however, with others, paid dearly for his flour, being afterward 
indicted, tried, and sent to prison for a term of years. 

f Mr. Hart's loss was set down at $10,000. 
63 



498 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

establishment of Meech & Co., also extensive flour-dealers. 
But the store of S. H. Herrick & Co., coming first in their 
way, they commenced an attack on that. The windows 
were first smashed in with a shower of brickbats, and 
the doors immediately afterward broken. Some thirty 
barrels of flour were then rolled into the street, and their 
heads staved in. The citizens and police, however, ad- 
vancing in large force, compelled the mob to desist, and 
soon dispersed it, capturing, also, some of the rioters. 

" At eight o'clock in the evening," writes Colonel Wil- 
liam L. Stone to a friend on the morning after the occur- 
rence, " all was quiet. I took a stroll over the scene of the 
principal riot, wading for a considerable distance knee- 
deep in flour and wheat. Several hundreds of people 
were yet lingering about, but the police were strong, and 
the patrols of troops frequent. I saw several women 
stealing away with small sacks of flour; but the weather 
was too intensely cold for people to remain abroad, and 
before nine all was quiet and still. The night was bright 
moonlight, and the glittering of the burnished armor 
made quite a striking appearance. Thus has ended the 
first attempt of the sovereign wisdom of this country to 
reduce the price of provisions by reducing the quantity 
in the market!" 

A detachment of the military, consisting of the Na- 
tional Guards, under Colonel Smith, and Colonel Helas's 
regiment, were under arms the entire night, with muskets 
loaded and cartridge-boxes well supplied with powder and 
ball, ready to act promptly on hearing the signal from the 
great bell of the City Hall ; but, happily, their services 
were not called into requisition. 

Regarding this riot, the city authorities were greatly 
blamed for not taking official measures for the preserva- 
tion of the peace of the city in anticipation of the meet- 
ing in the Park. They had had, it seems, full warning. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 499 

An anonymous letter had been found a day or two pre- 
vious in the Park, addressed to a Mr. W. Lennox, inform- 
ing him that Hart's store would be attacked soon by a 
large number of people ; and that, the better to carry out 
this project, two alarms of fire were to be given, one near 
the Battery, and the other higher up Broadway ; and 
while the attention of the police was thus distracted, the 
conspirators were to break into Hart's store and carry off 
as much flour as they could. Besides this letter, sev- 
eral other anonymous letters, to the same import, were 
received by the Mayor. It would therefore appear that 
the censure of the authorities by the public was not 
entirely undeserved. 

In this riot some forty of the rioters were captured, 
and afterward indicted, tried, and sent to State Prison. 
The ringleaders, however, almost to a man, escaped. Not 
a single person who signed the call, nor, as can be discov- 
ered, a single orator who harangued the meeting, was tried. 
Nor did the mob succeed in bettering their condition. 
" One effect," says Niles 1 Register for the week after the 
riot, " has resulted from the doings of the Political Econ- 
omists (!), which will add to the distress of that class they 
affected a desire to relieve. The stock of flour having 
been reduced, the price has naturally risen, and fifty cents 
per barrel more is now asked than was demanded previous 
to the mob." 4 

The Great Fire of 1835, narrated in the preceding- 
chapter, convinced the people of New York that the 
question of an ample supply of water could no longer be 
postponed. It had now been nearly seventy years since 
the subject of supplying New York with water began to 
attract the attention of the city authorities. Prior to the 
year 1799, the dependence of the people of the city for 
water was on the old " Collect Pond," the famous " Tea- 



500 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Water Pump," and wells in different parts of the city. In 
1774, when the total population of the city did not exceed 
22,000, works were constructed by Engineer Collis, on 
the east line of Broadway, between the present Pearl and 
White Streets. Here a reservoir was built, and a large 
well sunk in the " Collect Pond," now filled up and cov- 
ered with costly buildings. The breaking out of the Revo- 
lutionary War in 1775, and the occupation of the city by 
the British, caused these works, while yet uncompleted, to 
be abandoned. The " Tea- Water Pump" was situated in 
Chatham Street, east of Pearl. Its water was pure and 
soft, and the pump was resorted to from all parts of the 
city. As late as 1797, the records of the Common Council 
indicate its popularity, a resolution having been passed to 
prevent the street being obstructed by the water-carts, and 
the owner required to raise and lengthen the spout for the 
convenience of passers on the sidewalk. A fruitless effort 
was again made in 17 98-' 99 to obtain water for the city 
from the River Bronx, but no further action was taken at 
that time, owing to the organization of the Manhattan 
Company. This Company, which was incorporated April 
2d, 1799, supplied the city until 1822. The Manhattan 
Works, however, had long since proved comparatively 
worthless ; and, after much discussion — the people mean- 
while having decided the question of " water or no water" 
in the affirmative, by a large majority vote — it was 
resolved to construct an aqueduct from the Croton River, 
distant forty miles from New York, which should conduct 
the waters of that stream into the city. The work was, 
accordingly, forthwith begun, and finished in 1842. 

1842. . 

Never was there a better investment made than 
that of the Croton Aqueduct by the citizens of any 
other city. It has proved itself of great benefit, not only 
in a sanitary and financial point of view, but as a real 
source of enjoyment — its construction having given rise 







MOUTH OF THE CROTON RIVER 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 



501 



to many imposing works of art of which New-Yorkers 
may justly be proud. 

Beginning at the " Dam," the waters of the Croton 
flow to the Distributing Reservoir in Central Park, forty 




CROTON AQUEDUCT AT SING SING. 

miles and a half, through a covered viaduct made of stone 
and brick. In its course, it flows through sixteen tunnels 
in rock, varying in length from one hundred and sixty to 
one thousand two hundred and sixty-three feet. As it 
passes through Sing Sing and over the Kill, it becomes an 







CROTON DAM. 




Jk*"-- 



TUE HIGH BKIDGK. 




VIEW ON BLOOMINGDALE ROAD. 







VIEW IN CENTRAL PARK. 



ftr* H -X tan 



504 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



elliptical arch of hewn granite, of eighty-eight feet span, 
with its key-stone more than seventy feet from the waters 
of the brook beneath it. In Westchester County it crosses 
twenty-five streams, from twelve to seventy feet below 
the line of grade, besides numerous small brooks furnished 
with culverts. Upon its reaching Harlem River, it passes 




MANHATTANVILLE FROM CLAREMONT. 

over from the main-land to Manhattan Island by the 
" Hi^h Bridge " iustlv considered one of the most mag- 
nificent structures on the continent. Built of granite, the 
" High Bridge," or aqueduct, is one thousand four hun- 
dred and fifty feet in length, and rests upon arches sup- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



505 



ported by fourteen pieces of heavy and elaborate masonry. 
Eight of these arches are eighty feet span, and six of 
them fifty feet high. The height of the bridge above 
the water is one hundred and fourteen feet. The original 
cost of this structure was nearly a million of dollars. This 
point forms one of the " lions " of the city — to which any 




THE RESERVOIR, FIFTH AVENUE. 

" cousin " or " friend " who visits New York must certainly 
be taken during his or her stay. Nor, indeed, could a 
more charming drive be taken in the suburbs of the 
city than this. The Bloomingdale Road, which, leading- 
through Manhattanville, conducts the visitor from the city 
to the " High Bridge," and, passing between hills covered 
with wood, affords, in the heats of summer, a delightful 
change from the dust and scorching stone sidewalks and 
brick walls of the town. 

From the " High Bridge" (which, by the way, is at 
the foot of One Hundred and Seventy-fourth Street), the 
waters pass the Clendening Valley in an aqueduct one 
thousand nine hundred feet in length, and enter the Receiv- 

64 



506 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

ing Reservoir in the Central Park. Hence the waters are 
conveyed to the Distributing Reservoir on Murray Hill. 
The Reservoir stands in solemn contrast to the gay 
buildings of the Fifth Avenue, by which it is surrounded. 
" Its walls, in Egyptian style, are of dark granite, and 
average forty-four feet in height above the adjacent 
streets." Upon the top of the wall, which is reached by 
massive steps, is a broad promenade, from which may be 
obtained a fine view of the surrounding country. Per- 
fect security for the visitor is obtained by a strong battle- 
ment of granite on the outside, and an iron fence on the 
inside nearest the water. The water was first let into 
this reservoir on the 4th of July, 1842 ; and, on the 14th 
of the following October, distributed, by means of iron 
pipes, throughout the city.* 

* The Croton Dam covers an area of four hundred acres, aud contains 500,- 
000,000 gallons of water. The usual flow of the water through the pipes is 
30,000,000 ; its capacity 60,000,000. The Receiving Reservoir covers thirty-five 
acres, and contains 150,000,000 of gallons. The Distributing Reservoir holds 
21,000,000 of gallons. "The ridge line, or water shed, enclosing the Croton 
Valley above the dam is 101 miles in length. The stream is 39 miles in 
length, and its tributaries 136 miles. The total area of the valley is 352 square 
miles, and within it are 31 natural lakes and ponds." — Lossing's Book of the 
Hudson. 



CHAPTER X. 

New York had now fairly distanced all competitors. 
The gas had been introduced into the city in 1825 ; the 
New York University, notwithstanding the " Stone-cut- 
ters' Riot," finished in 1835; the magnificent Mer- 
chants' Exchange (the present Custom-house), and the 
Custom-house (now the Sub-treasury), erected in 1827 ; 
the Croton Aqueduct completed, and its practical utility 
inaugurated by a brilliant procession, in 1842, and a com- 
munication by the magnetic telegraph opened with ^^ 
other cities. Nothing was wanting to her temporal 
prosperity ; her civil freedom was all that could be desired. 
One thing only was necessary to place her on a footing 
with her sister cities in breadth and liberality of senti- 
ment. Nor was she long in taking this last step. By the 
provisions of an act passed by the New York Board of 
Education on the 11th of April, 1842, it was declared that 
no school in which any religious or sectarian doctrine or 
tenet was taught should receive any portion of the school 
moneys to be distributed by this act. Archbishop Hughes 
at once took the ground that to allow the Bible to be read 
daily in the schools was teaching a sectarian doctrine, and 
therefore demanded that the schools in which it was read 
should not be included in the distribution of the moneys. 
Colonel Wm. L Stone, who for many years had been one 



508 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

of the School Commission, and at this time (1843-44) 
was the county superintendent of the Common Schools,* 
immediately protested against the promulgation of 
this atrocious sentiment. A lengthy public discus- 
sion upon this point followed between the Arch- 
bishop and Colonel Stone, in which the latter carried the 
day ; and at a meeting of the Board of Education, held 
November 13, 1844 (three months after Colonel Stone's 
death), the act was amended by a resolution to the effect 
" that the Bible, without note or comment, is not a secta- 
rian book, and that the reading of a portion of the Scrip- 
tures without note or comment, at the opening of the 

* The difficulty which the author experienced in endeavoring to discover 
the year in which Colonel Stone was Superintendent of Common Schools 
deserves particular mention, as showing the shiftless manner in which the pub- 
lic records are kept in the city of New York. Wishing to ascertain the exact 
year in which Mr. Stone held the office, he went to a gentleman (we will call 
him A), whom he knew to be engaged in writing a history of our common 
schools, and asked the question. The gentleman was unable to tell him at the 
moment, but referred him to the Board of Education as the place where, of 
course, the desired information could be obtained. The author went there and 
asked an officer of the Board the question. He could not tell him, but referred 
him to a gentleman upstairs who would know. The latter, however, was 
equally in the dark, but, in his turn, referred las questioner to a gentleman 
down-stairs in another department, who, having been connected with the Board 
for a long term of years, would certainly know. Upon repeating the question 
to this one, he was informed that he did not know, as, until within a few years, 
the school records had not been annually printed, and that the manuscript kept 
by the different secretaries before that time was mislaid. He, however, was 

positive that if he should go to Mr. , in Wall Street, he would know, as 

he was one of the School Commissioners in the year designated. To him, 
therefore, the author went ; but his astonishment may well be imagined when 
that person said he had entirely forgotten, but stated that if he would go to 
such a one — mentioning the veritable Mr. A. — he could undoubtedly tell him, 
as he was now engaged upon a history of the common schools ! This, if not 
" reasoning in a circle," certainly was questioning in a circle, the questioner 
having brought up at the very point from which he started! Finally, upon 
the author making a second visit to the room of the Board, an attache of the 
place, who had a dim recollection of a record-book being in the cellar, went 
down-stairs, and, after much search, exhumed the manuscript, from which, after 
patient search, the desired information was brought to light. Now, if such 
difficulty exists in ascertaining — not an insignificant fact, but one relating to 
the Su r erintendent of Common Schools only twenty years since — what would 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY, 



509 



schools, is not inculcating or practicing any religious or 
sectarian doctrine or tenet of any particular Christian or 
other religious sect." The catholic spirit of New York s 
Dutch ancestors had triumphed. Henceforth it is to be 
hoped that she will be as cosmopolitan in her religious 
as she is in her civil rights. 

In 1845 New York was again visited by a conflagra- 
tion second only in its ravages to the one of 1835. 

The burnt district embraced Broadway, Exchange 
Place, New, Broad, Beaver, Marketfield, _ Stone and 
Whitehall Streets, and — which is a striking ^ 
coincidence-a portion of the same region devas- 
tated by the great conflagration in 1835, ten years before. 

be the difficulty in finding the Us^ylZ^s^ich occurred thirty, forty, 

OT We have* stated the above with, no intention of throwing censure upon the 
officers of the present Board. The fault lies not at their door. On the con 
trary with grit courtesy, they endeavored to aid us to the extent of their 
ability, and realized in its fullest extent the evils of the manner in which he 
reeori had in former times been kept. Indeed, it is only justice tc .say that 
it has been through their exertions that the proceedings have latterly been 

Prl Anther remarkable illustration of the subject existed a few years ago in 
the basement of the City Hall, under the County Clerk's office. The ancient 
Is of the Colonial Courts were one grand pile of parchment, lying in mass 
and creat quantities were stolen and sold to gold-beaters It would probably 
be impossible at the present time to find the judgment-roll m any cause tried 
prior to the year 1787, unless by chance. Possibly there has been more care 
of late in the' preservation of these records. Their value cannot be overesti- 
mated. (See also Appendix XII., in regard to the destruction of the records m 
the Hall of Records by the mice.) .„,.,. r, + 

Although there may be spasmodic attempts by individual* to bring about 
a reform in this regard, yet we greatly fear that it will continue so long as the 
true cause of the difficulty remains, to wit, that political maxim-the bane of 
Anierican institutions-" to the victors belong the spoils > New officeholders 
care little for old records ; and, throwing aside all sentiment in the matter, 
unless this thing is rectified, it will, in time, embarrass the practical business 
relations of every-day life. More attention must be paid to preserving records. 
It is not necessary to make enormous jobs, such as the atrocity which was per- 
petrated in New York City in reference to the Register's office. What is 
needed is a general respeci for the value of old records, and the adopt.on of 
preservative means. 



510 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

" It broke out on July 19th, 1845, completely destroying 
Exchange Place and Beaver Street, from Broadway almost 
to William. Both sides of Broad Street, from above Ex- 
change Place to Stone, with the east sides of Broadway 
and Whitehall, were consumed. Above Exchange Place 
the flames crossed Broadway, and consumed a number of 
buildings on its west side. During the progress of the 
lire a tremendous explosion took place, similar to that of 
1835, in a building stored with saltpeter. The owner 
contended that this article could not explode, which gave 
rise to the long-debated question, " Will saltpeter ex- 
plode ?" and for a long time able and scientific men 
warmly took sides in the arguments. Explosive or not, this 
was the second store filled with the article that blew up, 
causing great alarm and destruction to the neighborhood. 

" Three hundred and forty-five buildings were swept 
away at this time. Their value, with the goods, was 
estimated at about five millions of dollars. Among other 
things destroyed was the "Old Jail Bell," which had 
hung and rung in the cupola of that ancient civil pest- 
house and prison during the American Revolution. There, 
as already stated, for years it was the fire-alarm, or signal, 
and was considered especially the firemen's bell, as it could 
be depended upon at all times. At an early period, when 
it uttered its warning: tones, citizens, with fire-buckets on 
their arms, might have been seen hastening to the scene 
of danger and forming into parallel lines, one to pass the 
full buckets to fill the engines, and the other to return the 
empty ones for refilling. Most of the New York families 
had such leather buckets, which generally hung in some 
prominent part of the hall or entry, ready at hand in case 
of need." * 

The signal-bell rang in the days of John Lamb and 
pleasant-faced Tommy Franklin, and during Jameson 

* Hon. G. P. Disosway. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



511 



Cox's and Wy man's and Gulick's administrations. It was 
cherished by the firemen, and, upon the destruction of the 
Bridewell, the old bell was placed in the cupola of the 
Naiad Hose Company, Beaver Street, and was still devoted 
to its long-established uses. But the great fire of '45 
swept away this building, with its venerable bell ; and the 
faithful old public sentinel, sounding its last alarm, suc- 




BARNUM'S MUSEUM AND ST. PAUL'S CHURCH. 

cumbcd to the flaming foe against which it had so many 
years successfully warned the citizens. 

Many fires have occurred since the one of 1845. The 
Crystal Palace (1858), Barnum's Museum (1865), Harp- 
er's Building (1853), the old Irving House and the Acad- 
emy of Music (18G6), and the Winter Garden Theater 
(1867), have fallen before the destroyer — each involving 



512 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

heavy losses ; but the city has never since been visited by 
such wholesale destruction of property ; and it is fervently 
to be hoped that New York, protected by its present effi- 
cient Fire Department, has experienced the last of similar 
calamities. 

Indeed, with the exception of Constantinople, New 
York has, perhaps, suffered more frequently from con- 
flagrations than any other city in the world. Hamil- 
ton said in his time that one could not be twenty-four 
hours in New York without hearing an alarm of lire. 
This observation was repeated by a writer who published 
a small work, in 1837, called A Glance at Neiv York, who 
added that one alarm a day would be a small average, and 
that it would be nearer the truth to say that the firemen 
of New York were called out five hundred times a year — 
a statement which all familiar with New York at that time, 
and for years before it, can corroborate. Many of these, 
undoubtedly, were false alarms, raised by boys for the 
pleasure of running after the fire-engines. We have had 
no fire of the magnitude of that of London in 16G6, which 
laid waste four hundred and thirty-six acres, destroyed 
eighty-nine churches, thirteen thousand two hundred 
houses, and left two hundred thousand people temporarily 
without homes ; nor like the fire in Hamburg, in 1842, 
which burned down sixty-one streets and one thousand 
seven hundred and forty-seven houses ; nor like the Chi- 
cago fire, which burned over five acres, and left one hundred 
thousand of her citizens houseless. But if the frequency 
of fires in the city, the magnitude of some of them, and 
the amount of property destroyed, be collectively consid- 
ered, it will be seen that New York, perhaps, has suffered 
more heavily from this kind of calamity than any other 
city of modern times. 

Still, it must be admitted that, as a general thing, all 
of the conflagrations, both general and individual, with 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



513 



which New York has been visited, have in the end proved 
of great benefit, by causing more spacious and elegant 
edifices to arise, phcenix-like, out of the ashes. Perhaps 
in no other city of either hemisphere is there such a 
number of magnificent public and private edifices. Take 
Fifth Avenue, for example, which, although at present 
the chief of the fashionable promenades, is by no means 
the only handsome thoroughfare. For a distance of 




FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL, MADISON SQUARE. 

more than two miles one may pass between houses of 
the most costly description, built chiefly of brown free- 
stone, some of it elaborately carved. Travelers agree 
that in no other city in the world can there be found an 
equal number of really splendid mansions in a single street. 
At Madison Square, between Twenty-third and Twenty- 
sixth Streets, it is crossed diagonally by Broadway. At 

65 



514 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



the intersection, and fronting Madison Park, is the Fifth 
Avenue Hotel, built of white marble, and said to be one 
of the largest and most elegant buildings of the kind in 
the world. 

It is therefore, not a little singular that New York, 
with her traditions and memories, should have so few 




UNIOJS SIJUARK. 

public monuments. True, there are a number of statues ; 
such, for example, as those of Washington, Lincoln, and. 
Franklin, erected successively in 1856, 1870, and 1872; 
but it is a literal fact that, with the exception of 
the mural one to the memory of General Montgomery, 
in the front wall of St. Paul's, and the soldiers' monument 
in Trinity church-yard, the only public monument that 




SULDTERS' MONUMENT IN TRINITY CHURCH-YARD. 




WORTH'S MONUMENT. 



516 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

can, with truth, be thus designated, is the one to the 

memory of the late General William J. Worth, of the 

United States army, erected by the corporation of the city 

of New York in 1858. It is of Quincy granite, 

1 858. 

the apex is fifty-one feet from the ground, and the 
smooth surface of the shaft is broken by raised bands, on 
which are the names of the battles in which General 
Worth had distinguished himself in the War of 1812 and 
the war with Mexico. On the lower section of the shaft 
are representations of military trophies in bronze relief. 
The entire execution and designing of the work is due to 
Mr. James G. Batterson, who deserves great praise for the 
admirable manner in which his task was performed. The 
site of the monument — which is inclosed in a plain iron 
railing, and surrounded by green turf — is most happily 
chosen ; and, in addition to being a worthy tribute to a 
beloved and gallant soldier of the Empire State, is a hand- 
some ornament to the brilliant and fashionable locality. 

In the same year (1845) the Post-office was removed 
from the Rotunda in the City Hall Park to the Middle 

Dutch Church, where it still (1872) remains. 

i ft 4- "i 

Harper's Magazine for October, 1871, in giving a 
reliable and minute sketch of the New York Post-office 
and its traditions, says : 

" Immediately after the destruction of the Post-office in the great fire of 
1835, it had heen removed temporarily to the brick stores in Pine, near Nassau 
Street ; the destruction of such an enormous number of buildings making it 
impossible to obtain a suitable building in the vicinity of the burned district. 
In this strait, the city authorities offered the Rotunda in the City Hall Park, 
erected in 1818, by Vandelyn, the artist, for a studio and the exhibition of pan- 
oramic pictures. When it was understood the Government proposed to accept 
the Rotunda, busy as the merchants were in re-establishing themselves and 
counting up their losses, they found time to get up very demonstrative indig- 
nation meetings and protests against locating a post-office so far up town. 

" The Post-office was, however, installed in the Rotunda, and the commer- 
cial pressure of 1837, which followed the great fire, diverted the public mind 
from the location of the Post-office. Illustrative of the pecuniary disaster of the 
period may be mentioned that, in the ' collapse,' many of the merchants of the 
day owed the letter-carriers various sums, ranging from fifty to one hundred and 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 



517 



fifty dollars, much of which money was never paid, the debtors being irretrieva- 
bly ruined. This year the mail time between New York and New Orleans was 
reduced to six days and six hours. But the people, nevertheless, were impa- 
tient for more rapid communication, for we find in a Chicago paper of the time 
this notice : 

"'Hiorly Important. — By a foot passenger from the South we learn that the long- 
expected mail may be looked for in a week.' 

" Fortunately for the interests of commerce and the unity of the country, 
rapid transit of news, cheap postage, and facilities for traveling, were approach- 
ing consummation in the erection of railroad lines, with which private enter- 
prise was threading every section of the country. One triumph announced 
seemed onlv to create a demand for another, and when Amos Kendall carried 




THE MIDDLE DUTCH CHURCH DURING THE REVOLUTION. 

out the idea of connecting the non-continuous lines of railways by pony 
expresses, there was added a new value to the Post-office of New York. It 
began to assume its present central importance, and the promise of its brilliant 
future was almost realized, when the firing of guns from our national forts and 
vessels, with the ringing of bells, and cheers of thousands of exultant men, all 
joined in welcoming the first appearance of steam merchantmen in our harbor 
— the ever-to-be-remembered Sirius and Great Western. 

" The inconvenience of having the Post-office so far from the center of busi- 
ness was still complained of, and, to quiet dissatisfaction as far as possible, a 
letter-delivery was established in the new Merchants' Exchange, where the 



518 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Custom-house is now located, and placed in charge of Jameson Cox, an alder- 
man and ex-chief ; engineer. For letters two cents, for papers one cent, extra, 
was charged, which sums were paid without complaint by the merchants, aud 
the amount thus collected paid to letter-carriers' charges. 

" In the year 1826, Mr. Gouverneur had been removed, and James Page, 
Esq., postmaster of Philadelphia, commissioned to take charge, which super- 
vision was maintained for six weeks, when Jonathan J. Coddington was coin- 
missioned postmaster. When the latter assumed the duties of his position the 
Post-office was in the Rotunda building and in the house of a hook-and-ladder 
company adjoining, and a ' hose-house on the opposite side of the way.' Noth- 
ing could have been more inconvenient, contrary to good discipline, and injuri- 
ous to expeditious business operations. To remedy these evils, Mr. Coddington 
built a handsome extension facing toward Wall Street. With this important 
addition, and other improvements, he brought the entire business (now con- 
stantly increasing) under one roof. The mails were received in Chambers 
Street, the box delivery was on Center Street, while the interior of the Rotunda 
was devoted to the general delivery. 

" The location of the Post-office in the Rotunda seemed to be unsatisfactory 
to citizens living in every part of the city. An application was therefore made 
for the establishment of a branch post-office for the receipt and delivery of the 
mails in the upper part of the city-. The reply was, that such an office could 
only be a branch of the one already existing, and that no compensation could 
be allowed for services beyond the two cents per letter paid the carriers. It 
was also doubted if the extent of New York demanded such an addition to its 
postal facilities. The proposition was also submitted to Mr. Coddington, and 
was opposed by him and his clerks. The subject was finally referred to the 
Chamber of Commerce, which recommended that there be established a sub- 
post-office for the reception of letters at Chatham Square, but not any place for 
the delivery of letters other than the existing arrangements at the Post-office 
and by the penny post. Such was the origin of the Chatham Square post- 
office, which maintained its popularity and usefulness until its occupation was 
destroyed by the present iron boxes now so familiar on the street corners. 

" So much esteemed was Mr. Coddington by the officials at Washington, that 
the Postmaster-General, under General Harrison's administration, informed him 
that, though a political opponent of the administration, he might retain his 
position. One Aveek after this notice President Harrison died, and his succes- 
sor, John Tyler, promptly requested Mr. Coddington to renew his bonds. On 
this hint, after some hesitation, he did as requested, and forwarded them to 
Washington in June. The reply was promptly returned in the form of a com- 
mission creating 'John Lorimer Graham postmaster of New York, in place of 
Jonathan Coddington removed.' 

'"Mr. Coddington is still remembered among the old clerks of the Post- 
office, and the old merchants of the city, as one of the best of officers. He tried 
to learn the details of his position, and took pride in making every improve- 
ment that would render his department efficient. He was a man of great per- 
sonal independence, and, though a decided politician, he would not allow his 
bias that way to affect his official conduct. On one occasion a committee of 
ward politicians called upon him, and stated, through their chairman, that he 
had been assessed fifty dollars for partisan purposes. Mr. Coddington heard 
the proposition with patience, and then rising from his chair said : 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 519 

" ' I refuse to pay any such assessment as this you speak of. I'd have you 
understand that I am postmaster of New York City, and not postmaster of a 
ward committee.' 

" The pressure to get the Post-office ' down town ' still continued, and 
advantage was taken of the fact that the ' Middle Dutch Church ' was for sale 
to procure it for a Post office. There was nothing in the world so unsuited as 
the building for such a purpose ; but the location was desirable, and the mer- 
chants went to work to press the matter upon the Government. The property 
was offered for $350,000, but the Postmaster-General decided not to give more 
than $400,000. Lest the purchase might not be consummated, the merchants 
in a few hours raised by voluntary contributions the additional $50,000, and the 
old church was secured for secular purposes. 

" The extravagance and folly of the Federal Government in buying property 
erected for a church, and attempting to alter it to accommodate a post-office, or 
in leasing any kind of private property and fitting- it up for public service, finds an 
illustration, but not an exceptionable one, in this 'high old Dutch Church Post- 
office of New York city.' It may not be out of place to mention to the general 
reader that this old church was dedicated, in 1732, as a house of Christian wor- 
ship. Until the close of the century its services were carried on in the ' Hol- 
land language ;' after that it was alternated with the English language. In 
the year 1770 the British tore out its pews, and (with the adjoining building, 
the old Sugar-house) used it as a prison for American patriots, taken and 
treated as rebels. When no longer needed for this purpose, it served in rainy 
weather as a school-house for cavalry. When the British evacuated New York 
the congregation again took possession, removed the pulpit and altar from the 
eastern side to the northern end, and erected the heavy, formidable galleries, 
destined eventually to become so conspicuous in the economy of the Post-office. 
" Perhaps no building could be invented more unsuited for the purposes to 
which it has been appropriated. John Lorimer Graham, who had the respon- 
sible and difficult task of making it available, commenced by expending on the 
attempt what was then the large sum of $80,000. He then issued a printed 
circular, surmounted by a picture of the old church, dated New York, January 
2d, 1845, which read : 

"'The postmaster has great pleasure in announcing to his fellow-citizens that the new 
Post-office building (112 years old) in Nassau Street, will be ready for occupation in a few 
days, and respectfully invites, &c, &c, to view the interior arrangements of the establish- 
ment.' 

•' It was a grand time when the citizens crowded into this old church to look 
for the Post-office. The eighty thousand dollars had made no material change ; 
to be sure, the altar railing was gone, but the pulpit remained, and the gal- 
leries, left intact, resembled great overhanging amphitheaters. But the Post- 
office was finally installed ; and then commenced that era in its business his- 
tory that has made it a sort of visible standard, or gauge, of the mighty growth 
of old Manhatta. 

"The inconvenience, the necessarily miserable arrangements, the total unfit 
ness of the place — inherently so by the main design of the building— have been 
a source of constant discomfort and annoyance, and male the labors of the 
clerks and the supervision of the executive officers onerous to the last degree 
During the first year of the occupation, the space immediately around the build- 



520 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

ing was still covered with the tablets of what should have been the truly hon- 
ored dead ; for there lay the representatives of a large part of our ancient 
and best population. The vaults under and around the church gave up their 
dead when the profane feet of the busy multitude pressed forward toward the 
church, not for prayer, but from the absorbing interest in the living, bustling 
world. For a long year the strange spectacle was presented of coffins and 
mail-bags, of carts and extemporized hearses, jostling each other while engaged 
in their allotted work ; but at last this incongruous mingling of the dead pop- 
ulation and the living ended; but the forbidding look of that old castellated 
church remained. 

" The tower, bountifully made of stone, continued, and still continues, to 
look down sullenly on the bustle beneath, while the strong walls of the church 
inside, announcing, in Dutch, that ' My house shall be called a house of 
prayer,' and the rough plastered walls outside, speaking of the wasting storms 
of nearly a hundred and fifty years, repudiate all harmonious minglings and 
sympathies with the secular business of distributing the mails. 

" But the place is not without its living defenders of old traditionary pos- 
session. The mynheers are gone ; the Knickerbockers know the place no 
more ; but the rats, descendants of the original stock, keep high revel still, and 
continue to dispute possession with Uncle Sam and his salaried cohorts."* 

It was while Caleb S. Woodhull was Mayor that a ter- 
rible riot occurred in Astor Place. It was at this time 
that the Native American Party was all-powerful 

1849. 

in the city, and the greatest prejudice existed 
among the populace against any one of foreign birth. 
Such was the state of popular feeling when, in the autumn 
of 1848, William C. Macready, a well-known and eminent 
English tragedian, came to this country to play a fare- 
well engagement. Some hostility existed between him 
and Edwin Forrest, an equally well-known and eminent 
American tragedian, arising, as Macready assumed, from 
the unfriendly course of Forrest toward him while Mac- 
ready was playing in this country in 1844, and, as For- 
rest claimed, from the course pursued toward him by 
Macready while the latter was playing in England, which 
hostility was greatly augmented by Forrest having hissed 
Macready, in Edinburgh, for introducing something of his 
own in the play of Hamlet, in which he was performing 
the principal character. When Macready was announced 

* For a more detailed account, taken from the same source, see Appendix No. IV. 






HISTORY OP NEW YORK CITY 521 

to appear in New York, in 1848, it was anticipated that 
some opposition would be manifested toward him by the 
friends of Forrest, but Forrest dissuaded them from any 
such attempt. Macready went through his engagement 
without interruption, and, upon his benefit night, inju- 
diciously, in his speech to the audience, referred to the 
project of a party or faction to excite hostile feelings 
against him, and of its failure, in language which had the 
effect of arousing an active opposition to him on the part 
of the friends of Forrest. He was attacked by a Boston 
newspaper while performing in that city, and, upon his 
subsequent appearance in Philadelphia, a riot in the the- 
ater was prevented only by the strenuous exertions of the 
manager and the presence of a strong police force. At 
the close of this engagement, Macready, in his speech to 
the audience, referred to the ungenerous treatment he 
had received at the hands of an American actor, and For- 
rest replied, in a card in a Philadelphia newspaper, charg- 
ing Macready with instigating persons to write him down 
in the newspapers while he was in England, and procur- 
ing his friends to go to the theater, to hiss and drive him 
from the stage ; in which card he applied to Macready 
such epithets as " superannuated driveler," " poor old 
man," and spoke of the disturbed state of his guilty con- 
science ; to which card Macready rejoined by another, 
denying the truth of Forrest's statements, and threaten- 
ing an action for libel. No further attempt was made to 
oppose Macready, although he continued to be assailed in 
the newspapers, until his reappearance at the Astor Place 
Opera-house, in May, 1849, where, upon the first night 
of his appearance, he was prevented from performing by 
the hisses and demonstrations of a number of persons act- 
ing in concert, who displayed banners, with inflammatory 
appeals, in different parts of the house. As he persisted 
in performing, the demonstrations against him became 

66 



522 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

more violent ; chairs and missiles were thrown upon the 
stage, and he was compelled to desist from his attempt. 
As the hostility against him was supposed to proceed from 
a very limited number of persons, who had organized 
together to drive him from the stage, it elicited strong 
expressions of condemnation on the part of several of the 
public newspapers, and forty-eight prominent citizens 
signed and published a letter requesting him to recon- 
sider his determination not to perform, and assuring him 
that the good sense and respect for order in the commu- 
nity would sustain him upon the subsequent nights of his 
performance; in consequence of which letter he was 
announced to appear on the evening of May 10th, 1849. 
This letter had a very different effect from what its sign- 
ers anticipated, and greatly intensified the opposition. 
It was regarded as a challenge or defiance, by a few rep- 
resenting the upper or wealthier classes, to the less prom- 
inent part of the community, and national prejudices and 
antipathies were aroused by appeals through certain 
newspapers, prominent among which was a weekly pub- 
lication denominated Ned Bimtline's Own, conducted by 
E. C. Z. Judson, and by the posting and distribution 
of incendiary handbills throughout the city. Through 
these means, and from a report, which spread extensively, 
that the officers and crews of the British vessels and 
steamers in the harbor would assemble at the theater to 
sustain Macready, the excitement became general through- 
out the city, and, a serious disturbance being apprehended, 
the Mayor advised the managers of the Opera-house to 
close it for that evening, and abandon any further attempt 
of a public performance in the city on the part of Mac- 
ready. The managers, however, insisted upon their right, 
under their license, to open the theatre and perform, and 
the public authorities, in recognition of it, took measures 
to prevent any disturbance of the peace by stationing a 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 523 

strong police force in and around the Opera-house ; and 
arrangements were made with the major-general com- 
manding the uniformed militia to have an efficient mili- 
tary force in readiness to sustain the authorities, if neces- 
sary. Long before the opening of the Opera-house, large 
crowds assembled about and in front of it, and upon the 
opening of the doors the theater was speedily filled by 
persons having tickets, and without any disturbance or 
disorder. When Macready appeared the whole audience 
rose, and, the great bulk of those present being friendly 
to him, he was received with cheers and the waving of 
handkerchiefs, mingled with the groans and hisses of the 
few who were opposed to him. The noise continuing, a 
placard was displayed from the stage, requesting those in 
favor of order to remain quiet, which was complied with. 
About ten or fifteen persons, however, in the parquet, and 
some in the gallery, continued their opposition by hissing 
and angry demonstrations, and, as they would not desist, 
they were arrested by the police. Order was temporarily 
restored, and the play proceeded, but with occasional 
interruptions and hisses. Meanwhile the crowd upon the 
outside of the theater had largely augmented, and a group 
of young men, about twenty in number, were especially 
active in fomenting disturbance, conspicuous among whom 
was the prisoner Judson, with whom many of the young 
men frequently conferred, and who appeared to be acting 
as their leader. Judson was heard to say, " It is a shame 
that Americans should be served so !" and after a confer- 
ence with three of the young men, in a low tone, Judson 
called out, " Now, boys, whatever you have to do must be 
done quickly ! " and one of the young men shouted, " Now, 
boys, for a shower!" to which Judson, in his assumed 
capacity as a leader, called out, " Hold, boys, until you are 
all ready ! " and immediately a volley of stones was dis- 
charged against the walls and windows of the Opera- 



524 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

house, upon which the police arrested several of the 
participants, but not without very great resistance on the 
part of others. In the interior of the house the play was 
proceeding, when it was suddenly interrupted by a large 
paving stone, which came through one of the windows 
and fell among the audience, followed by other stones, 
smashing the panels of the doors and filling in the lobby 
and other places. The wildest scene of confusion ensued 
in the interior of the theater, which was heightened by the 
cry that it was on fire under the parquet, which proved 
to be the fact, and through this timely, warning it was 
speedily extinguished. Notwithstanding the activity of 
the police in making arrests, the attacks upon the Opera- 
house were continued outside with increased violence. A 
large number now united in assailing it with stones, break- 
ing the windows and attempting to force the doors at 
the entrances, which were resisted by the police, and the 
doors were barricaded from the inside, when a proposition 
was made, but not carried out, to enter the building from 
the rear by ladders ; a plan devised by the prisoner Jud- 
son, who had had ladders brought there for that purpose, 
with the design of entering the building in that way to 
put a stop to the performance and drive out the audience. 
The crowd on the Eighth Street side of the theater, as 
described by the witnesses, was wild with excitement, and 
at the front, upon Astor Place, were wrought up to the 
highest pitch, heaving to and fro like the waves of the 
ocean, the number of persons being variously estimated 
at from ten to twenty thousand. Stones and missiles 
were flying in all directions, and the police, after vainly 
endeavoring to allay the disturbance, and deserted by 
the Mayor, who fled from the scene, were compelled to 
keep compactly together for their own security. The 
recorder and the sheriff, who were upon the spot promptly, 
placed themselves at the head of the police and kept them 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 525 

together, who were now assailed with stones, missiles, and 
cries of derision from every quarter, in their unavailing 
attempt, as a body, to disperse the crowd, and some of 
them were very severely injured. 

As it was apparent that the police force was insuffi- 
cient to protect the building or to quell the riot, which 
had increased to alarming proportions, the sheriff, with 
the advice of the recorder, dispatched a messenger for the 
military. The major-general had ordered the Seventh 
regiment of infantry, known as the National Guard, and 
a 'troop of horse, to assemble at the arsenal, fully equipped, 
but, owing to the shortness of the notice, a force of but 
two hundred and seven men, in all, had assembled when 
the call came for their services ; and this body, under the 
command of Colonel Duryea, and accompanied by Major- 
General Sandford and Brigadier-General Hall, hastened 
to the scene of disturbance. Upon entering Astor Place, 
the troop of horse, which was in front, was assailed by a 
shower of stones and brickbats, which were so continuous 
and rapid that nearly every man in the troop was injured. 
Their horses became unmanageable, and, being thrown 
into confusion, they individually galloped off, leaving the 
infantry alone to contend with the rioters. The small 
body of infantry was speedily wedged in by the pressure 
of the crowd upon either side, and assailed by opprobrious 
epithets and paving stones, an ample supply of which was 
at the command of the rioters, from a large pile in the 
street, the pavement having been recently broken up to 
put down water pipes. The military, however, being kept 
together in good order and efficiently commanded, forced 
their way through the crowd and cleared the rear of the 
theater, the rioters retreating before them as they ad- 
vanced, and, having effectually cleared Eighth Street, a 
cordon of police was thrown across it, to prevent any fur- 
ther access to it by the rioters. The military then passed 



526 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

through Eighth Street to Broadway, accompanied by the 
recorder and the sheriff, and turned into Astor Place, to force 
back the crowd from that side of the theater, the rioters 
retreating before them until the military had reached 
to about the center of the Opera-house ; when the crowd, 
either from the pressure behind, or from the determina- 
tion to resist, remained stationary, and commenced assault- 
ing the military with showers of paving stones and brick- 
bats, by which nearly the whole of the first platoon were 
injured, and also the colonel commanding, the recorder, 
and several others. At this moment a pistol was fired 
from the crowd, which wounded one of the captains, 
whereupon General Sandford, and General Hall, who 
accompanied him, called out repeatedly to the crowd to 
fall back and disperse, or that they would be fired upon ; 
but were answered only by derisive cries, and by the 
crowd rushing forward upon the military, during which 
the commanding general was knocked down, together with 
several soldiers in the front rank, the whole body being 
forced back toward the Opera-house, followed by continu- 
ous showers of stones. At this juncture the order was given 
to charge bayonets, and the attempt made, but it could 
not be done, the pressure of the crowd was so close ; the 
muskets of several of the soldiers were forcibly taken from 
them by some of the more active of the rioters. The com- 
manding officer now apprised the recorder and the sheriff 
that it would be impossible for the military to maintain 
themselves without firing, and the sheriff, with whom that 
discretion was supposed to be lodged, after repeated calls 
to the rioters, on his part and that of the recorder, to fall 
back, or that they would be fired upon, and which was 
received with defiant shouts of " Fire, if you dare ! " gave 
the order to fire. General Hall suggested to fire over the 
heads of the crowd, which order was given, and the mili- 
tary fired in that manner. It was followed by a shout, 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 507 

" They have only blank cartridges ! Give it to them 
again ! " and another volley of paving stones followed, by 
which the recorder and several others were struck, and 
one or two severely injured. The order was then again 
given to fire, and to fire low, which was done, when excla- 
mations were heard that men had been shot ; and for the 
first time the mob gave way, and the military advanced, 
driving the rioters before them. The latter rallied again 
at the corner of Lafayette Place and advanced upon the 
military, discharging a volley of stones, by which' sev- 
eral of the soldiers were hurt severely, when another 
order was given to fire, which was executed, and proved 
so effectual that the bulk of the rioters fell back and dis- 
persed, keeping up, however, for some time, an attack 
upon the military, with stones and brickbats, until the 
latter, without firing again, got complete possession of the 
ground, and order was restored. Twenty-three persons 
were killed upon the spot by the fire of the military, or 
died afterward of their wounds, and twenty-two were 
wounded, independent of injuries and severe wounds 
received from paving stones by many of the police and 
the military. Many of the killed and wounded were 
merely spectators, who had taken no part in the riot, or 
persons who were passing at the time. A woman walk- 
ing with her husband, in Broadway, was shot dead ; a 
man was killed instantly by a musket ball while stepping 
from a Harlem railroad car ; an eminent merchant was 
wounded in the neck by a ball while standing in the Bow- 
ery, and another person was severely wounded by a shot 
in St. Mark's Place, two blocks, off from the scene of the 
riot ; a Mr. Gedney was shot dead while looking at the 
riot from the corner of Astor and Lafayette Places, and 
his own brother was in the platoon by which the volley 
had been fired. 

A very full investigation of the riot was instituted by 



528 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

the coroner's jury, who found that the persons killed came 
to their death from gunshot wounds fired by the military, 
by the order of the civil authorities, and that, in the opin- 
ion of the jury, the circumstances that existed at the time 
justified the authorities in giving the order to fire upon 
the mob.* 

Quite a number of local events, of considerable interest 
at the time, occurred about this period. Among these may 
be mentioned the visit of Jenny Lind to the United States, 
and her first appearance in Castle Garden on the 
7th of September, 1850 ; the new municipal regu- 
lations imposed by the amended city charter of 
1849 ; the Grinnell expedition to the Arctic regions ; and 
the arrival of the Hungarian patriot, Louis Kossuth on 
the 5th of December, 1851. 

On the 14th of July, 1853, the World's Fair for the 

exhibition of the industry of all nations was opened at 

the Crystal Palace, in Reservoir Square, in the 

1853. 

vicinity of the distributing reservoir of the Croton 
Aqueduct. " The fairy-like Greek cross of glass bound 
together with withes of iron, with its graceful dome, its 
arched naves, and its broad aisles and galleries, filled with 
choice productions of art and manufactures gathered from 
the most distant parts of the earth — quaint old armor 

* An investigation was also instituted before Hon. John W. Edmonds, pre- 
siding justice of the Supreme Court, as a committing magistrate, to inquire 
into the cause of the riot, by whom it was instigated, aided, or abetted, and, 
upon the information thus elicited, additional arrests were made. As the 
recorder, the Hon. Frederick A. Tallmadge, had participated as a magistrate in 
quelling the riot, his place as presiding judge of the Court of Sessions was 
filled by the Hon. Charles P. Daly, one of the judges of the New York Court 
of Common Pleas, at the opening of the June term of the court, 1849. 

Previous to this riot, it was the general opinion that no one could be prose- 
cuted for a riot, as it was supposed to be the natural effect of political passion. 
The trial of the Astor Place rioters decided and set at rest forever this question 
in the affirmative ; vide the able charge of Chief Justice Daly, in Judge 
Edmonds's Select Cases (not yet published on account of the plates being 
destroyed by fire) — from which, by the way, this account of the riot is taken. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 529 

from the Tower of London, gossamer fabrics from the 
looms of Cashmere, Sevres china, Gobelin tapestry, Indian 
curiosities, stuffs, jewelry, musical instruments, carriages 
and machinery of home and foreign manufacture, Maro- 
chetti's colossal equestrian statue of Washington, Kiss's 
Amazon, Thorwaldsen's Christ and the Apostles, Powers's 
Greek Slave, and a host of other works of art beside, will 
long be remembered as the most tasteful ornament that 
ever graced the metropolis." Beautiful, however, as was 
this fairy-like palace, it vanished in smoke in the short 
space of half an hour, on the 5th of October, 1858, and 
fell, burying the rich collection of the American Institute, 
then on exhibition within its walls, in a molten mass of 

ruins. 

In the winter of 1855, Canal Street was extended from 
Centre Street across Baxter to Mulberry Street, at which 
point it intersected Walker Street. The latter ^^ 
street was at the same time widened twenty-five 
feet to East Broadway. Park Place and Duane Street 
were also widened, and the Bowery and Chambers Street 
extended. 

In 1856, that great lung of the city, the Central Park, 
was, for the first time, thrown open to the public. The 
project of a large park had long been agitated ; and ^^ 
even as far back as the beginning of the present 
century it was proposed to make the Collect Pond the 
center of large ornamental grounds. But, with the excep- 
tion of the small parks scattered here and there, through- 
out the city, nothing definitely was decided upon until the 
23d of July, 1853, when the Legislature authorized the 
purchase of a portion of the present Central Park, at that 
time bounded by Fifty-ninth and One-hundred-and-sixth 
Streets and Fifth and Eighth Avenues, about two and a 
half miles long by half a mile wide, and comprising nearly 
seven hundred and seventy-seven acres. On the 17 th 

67 



530 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY, 



of November of the same year, five commissioners were 
appointed by the Supreme Court to appraise the land for 
the Park. They completed their work in the summer of 

1855, valuing the land at $5,398,695 ; and in February, 

1856, the Common Council confirmed their report and made 
the purchase. The State Arsenal and grounds were shortly 
afterward added, at a cost of $275,000. In 1859, the Legis- 
lature extended the northern boundary of the Park to One- 





THE TERRACE-BRIDGE AND MALL, CENTRAL PARK. 



hundred-and-tenth Street, thus including a high hill east 
of McGowan's Pass, from the top of which a fine view 
is obtained of the whole island. In 1864, the Park was 
again enlarged by the addition of Manhattan Square, a 
rough and uncultivated piece of land, covering a space of 
nineteen and a half acres, and bounded by Seventy-sev- 
enth and Eighty-first Streets and Eighth and Ninth Ave- 
nues. The whole area of the Park was thus increased to 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 531 

eight hundred and sixty-two and fifty-nine one-hundredths 
acres — more than twice the size of the largest of the Lon- 
don parks, and eight times larger than all the public parks 
and squares of New York combined. 

'•The year 1857 was a disastrous one to New York; 
a year of mob rule ; beginning with civil strife and end- 
ing with financial ruin. Many defects in the city charter 
called for remedy, and the growing abuses in the municipal 
government of New York, proceeding from the ignorant 
majority that controlled the elections, seemed to demand 
that certain powers should be transferred from the keep- 
ing of the city to that of the State, which was so deeply 
interested in the welfare of the great American metropo- 
lis. It began to be more and more realized that there 
were two peoples in New York, the property-owners, or 
bona fide citizens, who were for the most part respectable, 
orderly, and law-abiding men ; and the poor and illiterate 
masses, chiefly of foreign birth, who owned scarce a rod 
of land or a dollar, yet who ruled the city by their votes, 
and elected to office only such men as would pander 
to their vices. Nevertheless, the latter class represented 
and still represents New York city in the eyes of many ; 
a most unjust judgment. 

" In the spring of 1857 the State Legislature passed 
several bills relating to New York, and amended the char- 
ter in several important particulars. The charter and 
State elections, which had hitherto been held on the same 
day, were separated ; the first Tuesday in December being 
fixed as the date of the former. The Comptroller, as well 
as the Corporation Council and Mayor, were to be elected 
by the people. The city was divided into seventeen alder- 
manic districts, from each of which an Alderman was to 
be elected by the people once in two years. The Board 
of Councilmen was composed of six members elected 
annually from each senatorial district, or twenty-four in 



I 

I 

raise 

! 

E 

- 

| 

I 

I 

— 
- 

reius. 






HI8T0BY 01 533 

mat! re brought to a crisis by the forcible 

from the City Hail of Danii 1 D Conover, who had been 
appointor] Si ' sioner by Governor King, to fill 

the vacancy caused by the death of the former incumbent 
The Deputy Commissioner meanwhile claimed bis right 
to hold the office, and a third competitor, Charles Devlin, 
had been appointed by Mayor Wood, who claimed the 
appointing power. Mr. Conover immedial tained a 

warrant from the Recorder to arrest the Mayor on 
charge of inciting a riot, and another from Judge Hoff- 
man for the violence offered him personally; andai 
with these documents, and attended by fifty of the Metro- 
politan Police, returned to the City Hall. Captain Wall- 
ing, of the police, at first attempted in vain to gain an 
entrance with one warrant. Mr. Conover followed with 
the other, but met with no better success. The City Hall 
was filled with armed policemen, who ed the 

comers, joined by the crowd without. A fierce affray en- 
sued, during which twelve of the policemen we 
wounded. The Seventh Regiment chanced to be pa- _ 
down Broadway, on its the boat for Boston, 

whither it had been invited to receive an ovation It 
summoned to the -pot. and its presence almost instantly 
sufficed to quell the riot. Mr Conover, accompanied by 
Genera] Sandford, entered the City Hall and the 

writ on the Mayor, who, seeing further res iless, 

submitted to arrest. The 5 - Regiment resumed its 

journey; nevertheless the city continued in a state of 
intei itement, and nine regiment* 1 to 

remain under arms. Their services were not needed, how- 

. and the Metropolitan Police Act being declared con- 
stitutional by the Court of Appeals on the first of July. 
the Mayor seemed disposed to submit, and the disturbance 

supposed to be ended. 
'• The city, however,, had become greatly demoralized 



534 H STORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

by this ferment. Amidst the civil strife of the police, 
the repression of crime had been neglected. An organ- 
ized attempt seems to have been made by the ruffians of 
the city to take advantage of the prevailing demoraliza- 
tion to institute mob rule, in order to rob and plunder 
under cover thereof. The national holiday afforded an 
opportunity for this outbreak. On the evening of the 3d 
of July the disturbance commenced by an altercation 
between two gangs of rowdies, the one styled the " Dead 
Rabbits " or " Roach Guard," from the Five Points Dis- 
trict, and the other the "Atlantic Guard " or "Bowery Boys," 
from the Bowery. The next morning the Dead Rabbits 
attacked their rivals in Bayard Street, near the Bowery. 
The greatest confusion followed ; sticks, stones, and knives 
were freely used on both sides, and men, women, and chil- 
dren were wounded. A small body of policemen was dis- 
patched to the spot, but it was soon driven off, with 
several wounded, and the riot went on. The rioters tore 
up paving stones, and seized drays, trucks, and whatever 
came first to hand, wherewith to erect barricades ; and 
the streets of New York soon resembled those of Paris in 
insurrection. The greatest consternation and horror pre- 
vailed through the city ; the Seventh Regiment, which 
was still in Boston, was summoned home by telegraph, 
and several regiments of the city militia were called out ; 
but the riot was not quelled until late in the afternoon, 
when six men had been killed and over a hundred 
wounded. There was little fighting the next day until 
about seven in the evening, when a new disturbance broke 
out in Centre and Anthony Streets. The militia were 
summoned to the spot, and dispersed the crowd. Several 
regiments were ordered to remain under arms, but no 
other troubles occurred. 

"This riot aroused the citizens to the danger of the 
position, and intensified the prejudice against the Muni- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 535 

cipal Police, which was accused of abetting the rioters. 
Vigorous measures were taken to organize the Metropoli- 
tan Police and secure its efficiency, in spite of the factious 
resistance which still existed. The rioters were by no 
means quieted, however, and on the 13th and 14th of 
July another outbreak occurred among the Germans of 
the Seventeenth Ward, who had hitherto- held aloof from 
the disturbance, which had been almost wholly confined 
to the Irish. The riot continued for two days, but was 
finally quelled by the police without the assistance of the 
militia, who were under arms, awaiting the signal for 
action. The peace of the city was not again disturbed, 
and the elements of disorder were gradually restrained. 

" The scourge of civil war was quickly succeeded by 
that of financial distress. In the autumn of 1857 a great 
monetary tempest swept over the United States. For 
several years the country had been in the full tide of 
prosperity. Business was flourishing, commerce prosper- 
ous, and credit undisputed both at home and abroad ; the 
granaries were overflowing with the yield of a luxuriant 
harvest, and everything seemed to prophesy a continued 
era of prosperity. In the midst of the sunshine a thun- 
derbolt fell upon the country. The credit system had 
been expanded to its utmost limits, and the slightest con- 
traction was sufficient to cause the commercial edifice to 
totter on its foundation. The first blow fell on the 24th 
of August, 1857, by the suspension of the Ohio Life and 
Trust Company, an institution hitherto regarded as above 
suspicion, for the enormous sum of seven millions of dol- 
lars. This was followed by the suspension of the Philadel- 
phia banks, September 25th, 26th. succeeded by the general 
suspension of the banks of Pennsylvania, Maryland, the 
District of Columbia, and Rhode Island. An universal 
panic was the result ; the whole community seemed 
paralyzed by an utter lack of confidence; the credit sys- 



536 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

tern fell to the ground, carrying with it the fortunes of 
half the merchants, and business was prostrated. Failure 
followed failure. A run upon the banks forced the State 
Legislature to pass an act, October 13th, 14th, authorizing 
a general suspension of specie payment by the banks for 
one year. The city banks, however, resumed payment 
on the 24th of December. The Massachusetts banks sus- 
pended payment on the same day. The panic spread 
through the United States, and thence extended across 
the ocean, involving the European nations in the general 
ruin. The manufactories stopped work throughout the 
country, thus throwing thousands out of employment and 
reducing them to a state of utter destitution. A state of 
terrible suffering ensued. Crowds of the unemployed 
workmen gathered in the Park, clamoring for bread and 
threatening to procure it at all hazards, while many more, 
as needy and less demonstrative, perished silently of cold 
and starvation. For some time serious danger was ap- 
prehended from the rioters, who accused the speculators 
of being at the root of the evil, and threatened to break 
open the flour and provision stores and distribute the con- 
tents among the starving people. Prompt measures were 
taken by the corporation to alleviate the suffering and 
provide for the public safety. Many of the unemployed 
were set to work on the Central Park and other public 
works, soup-houses were opened throughout the city, and 
private associations were formed for the relief of the 
suffering ; but this aid failed to reach all, and many per- 
ished from sheer starvation, almost within sight of the 
plentiful harvests at the West, which lay moldering in 
the granaries for the want of money wherewith to pay 
the cost of their transportation. Money abounded, yet 
those who had it dared neither trust it with their neigh- 
bor or risk it themselves in any speculative adventure ; 
but, falling into the opposite extreme of distrust, kept 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 537 

their treasure locked up in hard dollars in their cash-boxes 
as the only safe place of deposit. As spring advanced, 
business gradually revived, the manufactories slowly com- 
menced work on a diminished scale, the banks resumed 
payment one by one, and a moderate degree of confidence 
was restored ; yet it was long before business recovered 
its wonted vitality. The failures during the year num- 
bered five thousand one hundred and twenty-three, and 
the liabilities amounted to two hundred and ninety-one 
millions seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 

" In April of the same year the city government 
resolved to remove the hundred thousand bodies that 
filled the Potter's Field, or pauper burial-ground, from the 
city limits to Ward's Island, where seventy acres had 
been purchased for the purpose. Previous to 1823 the 
Washington Parade-ground had been devoted to this use, 
after which the ground now occupied by the distributing 
reservoir, on the corner of Forty-second Street and Fifth 
Avenue, was taken for a public cemetery. At the expira- 
tion of two years the bodies were removed from both 
Washington and Reservoir Squares to the new Potter's 
Field, bounded by Forty-eighth and Fiftieth Streets, and 
Fourth and Lexington Avenues. This site was granted 
by the city, in the following year, to the State Woman's 
Hospital, founded in 1857 by Dr. J. Marion Sims, and 
subsequently conducted by Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet, the 
grandson of the eminent lawyer of that name (whose 
monument forms one of the prominent features of St. 
Paul's church-yard), and the grand-nephew of the cele- 
brated Irish patriot."* 

During the next few years no events stand out partic- 
ularly prominent in the city's history. It is true that the 
destruction of the Quarantine buildings on Staten Island 



* Mary Booth's History of New York City. 
68 



538 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 

by the populace in July, 1858, occasioned considerable 

lg58 excitement, but the rioters were soon put down. 

In June, 18G0, the city entertained the mem- 

bersof the Japanese Embassy; and in the same suin- 

mer welcomed successively the Prince do Joinville, 

1861 - Lady Franklin, and the Prince of Wales. In 1861 

1 802. . im l 18GU, the citizens of New York, almost to a man, 
and without distinction of party, rose grandly to 

1803. s UlS tuiii the Union; but, in 18G3, the enviable rep- 
utation thus gained was sadly tarnished by an event to 
which, on account of its importance, the next chapter will 
be devoted. 



CHAP.TER XI. 

The year 1863, as hinted in the last chapter, was 
marked by an event which, as has been justly remarked, 
was the most humiliating of any ever recorded in 
the annals of New York. The national victories 
of Gettysburg and Vicksburg, while they gladdened the 
hearts of loyal citizens, only exasperated the disloyal por- 
tion of the community, and urged them to desperate meas- 
ures. An opportunity for such a course was soon found 
when the draft, in accordance with a proclamation, issued 
by the President of the United States on the eighth of 
May, was begun in the Eastern and Middle States, early 
in July. This process for obtaining soldiers, however 
necessary, was known to be distasteful to American citi- 
zens, and more or less resistance to its execution was 
anticipated, but, greatly to the surprise of all, and much, 
perhaps, to the disappointment of some, the draft was 
begun and completed in a considerable portion of the 
country without exciting any violent opposition. There 
were, indeed, everywhere, from those liable to suffer from 
its effects, expressions of dissatisfaction, though a general 
resignation to its necessity. 

Even in New York, on the first day of the draft, Sat- 
urday, July 11th, there was hardly any manifestation of 
public discontent. The drawing in the Twentieth Ward 



540 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

took place, under the guard of a strong police force, at the 
office of the provost marshal, No. 677 Third Avenue, 
beginning at nine o'clock in the morning and ending at 
four in the afternoon. A large crowd assembled in the 
neighborhood and exhibited great interest in the result, 
but no desire to interfere with the process. " Everything 
then went on as quietly as possible during the entire day. 
The people seemed to take it in more of a jocular than a 
serious mood, as a smile flitted frequently across the 
countenances of several. When some familiar name was 
announced, there was an ejaculation of ' How are you, 
Brady V or ' How are you, Jones V Then there were joc- 
ular tokens of sympathy, such as ' Good-by, Patrick,' or 
' Good-by, James,' when the drawn name happened to have 
either of these Christian prefixes to the same." 

Such was the prelude, comical in its extremes of good 
humor, which preceded the tragic week of civic anarchy. 
During the Sunday which succeeded the first day of the 
draft, there was evidently great agitation among the 
poorer inhabitants of the city, who, gathering about the 
streets in throngs, angrily denounced a compulsory sys- 
tem for obtaining soldiers, that seemed to bear most 
heavily upon the class to which they belonged. On Mon- 
day morning, July 13th, the draft of the Ninth District was 
resumed. At nine o'clock the doors of the provost mar- 
shal's office were thrown open, when a large crowd imme- 
diately thronged in. The drawing commenced at half-past 
ten o'clock. Some fifty or sixty names had been taken 
from the wheel and announced, when, on the announce- 
ment of Z. Shay, 633 West Forty-second Street, a stone 
was dashed through the window. This was taken as the 
signal for a general attack by the populace on the out- 
side, which had been gathering since the opening of the 
day, and now numbered several thousands. 

" During the early part of the morning," reports a 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 541 

journalist,* " the people of the Ninth District, consisting 
of a large number of respectable workmen and others, 
were seen to assemble at certain specified spots, and 
between eight and nine o'clock began moving along the 
various avenues west of Fifth Avenue, toward their 
appointed place of general meeting. A large number of 
workmen's wives, etc., began also to assemble along the 
various avenues, and, if anything, were more excited than 
the men, who were armed with sticks, stones, adzes, 
axes, saws, and some with even old swords. As the 
assembled people moved along they stopped at the differ- 
ent workshops and factories, and a deputation entered the 
various buildings to inform their proprietors that they 
would not be answerable for the safety of their premises 
unless the same were closed and their men allowed to 
join them if they so desired. In most cases the request 
was complied with at once, and the assemblage moved on. 
They next arrived at their specified meeting place, on an 
open lot near the Park, and by their concerted action it 
was evident that there had been some degree of organiza- 
tion in their movements. Having arranged their plans 
to their satisfaction, they began to move down town again, 
by way of Fifth and Sixth Avenues, until they reached 
the vicinity of Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Streets, 
along which they proceeded in an easterly direction. 
When they arrived at Fourth Avenue, along which the 
New Haven and Harlem Railroad tracks run, one of the 
principals of the assembled people caught sight of the tel- 
egraph wires and poles. It was at once suggested that 
the authorities might telegraph to Albany for troops. 
Scarcely were the words uttered when the axes were laid 
at the feet of the telegraph poles, and down they came 
That part of the wires that could not be thus destroyed 



* New York Herald. 



542 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

was divided by means of men climbing the poles and 
throwing slings, stones, etc., until the wires were severed 
and rendered completely useless. Another branch wire, 
leading from the railroad to Third Avenue, and that along 
Third Avenue, were similarly damaged, and then the 
crowd again moved on to the provost marshal's office." 

On the first stone being thrown through the window, 
the mob on the outside rushed into the building. After 
having dashed the wheel into pieces, torn into shreds the 
draft list, and destroyed the furniture of the office, they 
emptied out a can of turpentine, and setting fire to it, the 
whole house was soon in flames. The fire extended to 
three adjoining buildings, as the mob, overpowering the 
police, would not allow the firemen to extinguish it, 
and exulted with loud shouts at the conflagration. 

The crowd, still increasing in numbers and becoming 
more excited, now turned to go to the arsenal, where, 
in the meantime, a detachment of regulars from Gover- 
nor's Island had arrived and were prepared to defend the 
building. A small force of only about forty soldiers, 
being a part of the provost guard, having been sent 
up from the Park to awe the rioters, came into collision 
with them in the Third Avenue, near Forty-second Street, 
and fired, killing and wounding several persons. This, 
instead of intimidating, aroused the fury of the people, 
who attacked the soldiers and forced them to fly. As 
they fled they threw away their muskets, which were 
seized by their pursuers and used against them. One 
being overtaken, was "beaten almost into jelly, and 
fainting from loss of blood and exhaustion, was thrown 
into an alley-way and left to take care of himself as best 
he mi<rht." Others were seized and mangled to death. 
In Forty-second Street, a policeman on duty having fired 
into the crowd and unfortunately killed a woman, was 
set upon with sticks and stones, and after being thus 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 543 

cruelly mauled, was shot in the back. The rioters, in the 
course of their morning's havoc, burnt the Bull's Head 
Hotel in Forty-third Street and the Colored Orphan Asy- 
lum in Fifth Avenue, and tore up a portion of the New 
Haven Railroad track. In the afternoon they resumed 
their work of destruction, and after killing and wounding 
half a dozen of its defenders, destroyed a depot of fire- 
arms at the corner of Second Avenue and Twenty-first 
Street, and burned two private houses in Lexington 
Avenue, in their rage at the escape of a policeman who 
had sought refuge in one of them. The draft in the 
Eighth District, including the Twenty-second Ward, was, 
notwithstanding the disorder in other parts of the city, 
persisted in until twelve o'clock, when it was suspended. 
About four o'clock in the afternoon the mob attacked the 
enrolling office, No. 1190 Broadway, second door from the 
corner of Twenty-ninth Street, and after rifling it and the 
neighboring shops, burnt them to the ground. In other 
parts of the city there were also riotous manifestations, 
and some acts of violence. A crowd thronging about the 
Tribune office broke the windows and tore down the doors. 
Demonstrations were also made against the residences of 
Mayor Opdyke and others. 

The civic and military authorities seemed perplexed 
how to act. The usual proclamations and orders were 
issued by the Mayor and the commanders of the United 
States troops and militia, but nothing effective was done 
toward re-establishing order in the city and rescuing it 
from the ruthless sway of the mob. It is true that, in 
consequence of the call of the President for troops to 
resist the invasion of the enemy, New York had been 
deprived of most of its armed defenders ;* still, with 



* An idea of the deserted state of the lower and business part of the city 
during the riot may be gathered from this fact. At two o'clock on the after- 



544 HISTOEY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

unanimity of action and timely precaution, it would not 
have been difficult to organize the orderly citizens into 
efficient conservators of the peace. 

On the second day, Tuesday, July 13th, the rioters, 
their audacity heightened by impunity, and their lust of 
blood and plunder increased by previous license, recom- 
menced their work of rapine and murder. The Governor 
of the State came to the rescue of the helpless city with 
a proclamation : 

" To the People of the City of New York — A riotous 
demonstration in your city, originating in opposition to 
the conscription of soldiers for the military service of the 
United States, has swelled into vast proportions, direct- 
ing its fury against the property and lives of peaceful 
citizens. I know that many of those who have partici- 
pated in these proceedings would not have allowed them- 
selves to be carried to such extremes of violence and of 
wrong, except under an apprehension of injustice ; but 
such persons are reminded that the only opposition to the 
conscription which can be allowed is an appeal to the 
courts. 

" The right of every citizen to make such an appeal 
will be maintained, and the decision of the court must be 
respected and obeyed by rulers and people alike. No 
other course is consistent with the maintenance of the 
laws, the peace and order of the city, and the safety of 
its inhabitants. 

" Riotous proceedings must and shall be put down. 
The laws of the State of New York must be enforced, its 
peace and order maintained, and the lives and property 
of all its citizens protected at any and every hazard. The 



noon of Monday, the first day of the riot, the writer turned into Broadway 
from Grand Street, and as far as he could see up and down Broadway, he dis- 
covered hut one solitary individual. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 545 

rights of every citizen will be properly guarded and 
defended by the Chief Magistrate of the State. 

" I do therefore call upon all persons engaged in these 
riotous proceedings to retire to their homes and employ- 
ments, declaring to them that, unless they do so at once, I 
shall use all the power necessary to restore the peace and 
order of the city. I also call upon all well-disposed per- 
sons not enrolled for the preservation of order to pursue 
their ordinary avocations. 

" Let all citizens stand firmly by the constituted 
authorities, sustaining law and order in the city, and 
ready to answer any such demand as circumstances may 
render necessary for me to make upon their services, and 
they may rely upon a rigid enforcement of the laws of 
this State against all who violate them. 

" Horatio Seymour, Governor. 

" New York, July 14th, 1863." 

The rioters gave little heed to words however persua- 
sively uttered, and in spite of the Governor's proclama- 
tion, continued to glut their instincts of rapine and cruelty. 
The State, civic, and military authorities (both Federal and 
State), the navy, Governor Seymour, Mayor Opdyke, the 
Police Commissioners, Generals Wool, Brown, and Sand- 
ford, co-operated in efforts to protect the city, but found 
that the forces at their command were barely sufficient to 
guard the public property. The Custom-house, the Sub- 
treasury buildings, and arsenals were filled with marines 
and sailors, the approaches and entrances were covered by 
cannon, and the halls lined with howitzers from the Navy 
Yard. The ship-yards, gas-works, and public institutions 
were guarded by the few militia left in the city, and gun- 
boats anchored in the East and North Rivers, with their 
broadsides menacing Wall and other streets, which were 
thought to be especially exposed to attack. Notwith- 

69 



546 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

standing these precautions, and the suspension of the 
draft, which was supposed to have provoked the popular 
violence, the mob, on the second day of the riot, contin- 
ued to rage almost without check. The city, thus at the 
mercy of robbers and murderers, wore an air of gloom and 
despair. Business was arrested, the stores and shops were 
closed, and the promenades deserted. The well-dressed 
women, the fashionable loungers, and the dashing equip- 
ages were absent from the streets ; and the occupant of 
every house barricaded his windows and doors, and armed 
himself with such weapons as he could procure. 

Though the whole city was more or less the scene of 
violence, the most tragic incidents occurred in the Second 
and Third Avenues and neighboring streets. " Early in 
the morning," wrote a reporter,* " there might be seen 
several hundreds of people congregated at each of the 
corners in the vicinity of Thirty-fourth Street and up to 
Forty-sixth. There seemed to be no great excitement 
pervading the masses of persons who were here assem- 
bled, but a settled and gloomy quiet hung over their 
every movement. All canvassed the exciting events 
which had transpired the day previous with a good deal 
of sober calmness, and no demonstration of any descrip- 
tion took place which might be construed as an outbreak. 

" Numbers were armed, but no attack upon person 
or locality seemed to be determined upon. Several of 
their friends addressed them, and they listened with com- 
parative quiet. Father Clowrey, the Catholic priest of 
that district, spoke to them, and requested that they 
would go to their homes and keep quiet. This advice 
from the venerated clergyman seemed to be regarded 
with a good deal of interest, and the crowd, for a few 
moments, seemed to be deeply impressed with what was 



* New York IIe><dd. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 547 

so feelingly said to them. There appeared to be a general 
disposition to keep quiet at this moment, and several turned 
into the adjacent streets, as if to wend their way home- 
ward. Father Clowrey, however, soon went away, and 
the crowd commenced to clamor and use emphatic gestic- 
ulations once more. Propositions were made by several 
to proceed to different localities and break open premises. 
But these suggestions seemed to meet with opposition. 
Some one of the multitude remarked that the police and 
military were coming up the avenue, as on Monday, and, 
like a flash of electricity, the whole crowd were moved 
with the most tremendous excitement, and daring epithets 
were freely indulged in. ' Let them come on, and we will 
meet them like men !' were the outcries which were now 
raised. The crowd rushed into several houses, and took 
therefrom every article which might in any way be con- 
verted into a weapon. Women also armed themselves with 
whatever they could lay hold of, expressing themselves in 
the strongest language, both of encouragement to their 
friends and relatives, and disdain for those who were com- 
ing up to disperse them The crowd was at this time 
congregated between Thirty-fourth and Thirty-seventh 
Streets in the Second Avenue, and accessions to their 
ranks were flocking in from all directions. There was not 
a single laborer in that locality who did not leave his em- 
ployment and join the mass, until it must certainly have 
numbered some ten thousand persons in all. The sight 
at this time was certainly of a nature to excite fear 
in the stoutest heart. There was not much clamor or 
noise of any description, but a settled and determined 
appearance was the peculiar characteristic of each indi- 
vidual. All seemed imbued with one idea, that of ' resist- 
ance,' and no matter what obstacle came in their path, 
they seemed ready to encounter it. 

" At about ten o'clock in the morning a body of troops, 



548 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

about four hundred in all, accompanied by a number of 
police, inarched leisurely up Third Avenue. The military 
were composed of Company H, of the Twelfth regiment, 
under command of Captain Franklin ; and about fifty of 
the Eleventh regiment New York Volunteers, under the 
command of Colonel H. F. O'Brien. They brought with 
them two small field-pieces. There were also about four 
hundred police on the march, led by Deputy Superintend- 
ent Carpenter and Sergeant Copeland. They were well 
armed, and carried their clubs in a firm grasp, as if deter- 
mined to do their part of the work. 

" On arriving at the corner of Thirty-fourth Street and 
Third Avenue, the entire force marched down the street 
into the avenue, the military passing up some few minutes 
before. There was no opposition whatever offered to the 
military as they filed past; but as soon as the police made 
their appearance the fight commenced, and in earnest. A 
shower of bricks came down upon their heads from all 
directions, and a hand-to-hand encounter immediately fol- 
lowed. The police rushed into the various houses on the 
route, and, hurrying up stairs, used their clubs against any 
person, young or old, whom they met. In those encoun- 
ters it is impossible here to state how many were killed 
and wounded ; but there must certainly have been upward 
of ten or fifteen clubbed to death. 

'• This assault did a great deal to excite the people to 
the highest pitch, and they now fought and acted like men 
who did riot care what they did, or what was the conse- 
quence of their acts. The police fought well, but in some 
cases they acted in a manner calculated to incite the 
people to increased violence. Several were clubbed to 
death in their own houses, and the stairs, rooms, and hall- 
ways covered with blood, while the furniture, glasses, &c, 
were broken to pieces. The police evidently got the best 
of it in this encounter, and succeeded to a great extent in 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 549 

putting down the disturbance, which was fast spreading 
from street to street. The police, as they came from the 
houses after inflicting summary punishment upon all who 
came in their way, formed again in the streets. Here they 
took up the line of march, and were proceeding to another 
vicinity, when a second attack took place ; and now the 
real work commenced. 

" There were two howitzers placed in position, sup- 
porting which were two companies of the Eleventh New 
York State Volunteers, under command of Colonel O'Brien, 
who was on horseback. The military were formed on 
Second Avenue, at the corner of Thirty-fourth Street, 
with the crowd on either side of them and a few in front, 
none expressing the slightest trepidation at the dangerous 
position in which they were placed. Bricks flew like hail- 
stones among the soldiers. Colonel O'Brien rode up and 
down in the center, and then gave the command ' Fire !' 
to those who had charge of the howitzers. Some allege 
that these pieces were loaded with grape and canister ; 
but however this may be, there were several seen to fall 
at this time. The two companies of infantry of the Elev- 
enth regiment, which were under the immediate com 
mand of Colonel O'Brien, also opened a fire of Minie 
bullets and committed some havoc among the crowd, 
which was firmly massed together at this point. Several 
fell upon the sidewalks and in the middle of the street, 
and were carried into various houses, where their wounds 
were attended to. 

" The action of Colonel O'Brien, as described by sev- 
eral who were within hearing distance of him during the 
whole time, is thus described from the commencement of 
the conflict. He urged on the soldiers to fire into and 
attack the people in all manner of ways. How true this 
is cannot be determined ; but the fate which he met with 
is probably one of the most horrible that the present gen- 



550 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

eration ever witnessed. Colonel O'Brien, as has already 
been stated, was on horseback, and had the entire com- 
mand of the military, and it was by his orders that they 

fired. 

" A most heart-rending occurrence took place during 

this fight. Colonel O'Brien held a revolver in his hand, 
and was riding up and down between either line of the 
crowd. He, as it is stated, fired his revolver into their 
midst, the ball killing a woman and child, which she held 
in her arms. After several rounds had been fired the 
people began to disperse, and the police proceeded, to 
another part of the city. Colonel O'Brien and his com- 
mand, however, remained. The Colonel dismounted from 
his horse and walked into a drug store. 

" Had he taken his departure at this time, there is 
little doubt that his life would have been saved. Colonel 
O'Brien stayed in the drug store for some few minutes ; it 
is thought that he went in to get some refreshments. The 
crowd were around the door at this time. There w T as 
scarcely a word spoken, but the lowering glances of a 
thousand men looked down in vengeful spirit upon him as 
he stood in the door. He then drew his sword, and with 
the revolver in the other hand, walked out on the sidewalk 
in the very center of the crowd. He was immediately 
surrounded, and one of the men came behind, and, strik- 
ing him a heavy blow on the back of the head, staggered 
him. The crowd then immediately surrounded and beat 
him in a most shocking manner. His almost inanimate 
body was taken up in the strong arms of the crowd and 
hurried to the first lamp-post, where it w r as strung up by 
a rope. After a few minutes the body was taken down, 
he being still alive, and thrown, like so much rubbish, into 
the street. The body lay in the middle of the street, 
within a few yards of the corner of Thirty-fourth Street. 
Nature shudders at the appalling scenes which here took 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 551 

place The body was mutilated in such a manner that it 
was utterly impossible to recognize it. The head was 
nearly one mass of gore, and the clothes saturated with 
blood. A crowd of some three hundred persons sur- 
rounded the prostrate figure. These men looked upon the 
terrible sight with the greatest coolness, and some even 
smiled at the gory object. Our reporter walked leisurely 
among the crowd which surrounded the body, and gazed 
upon the extended mass of flesh which was once the cor- 
pulent form of Colonel H. F. O'Brien. Notwithstanding 
the fearful process which the soldier had gone through, he 
was yet breathing. The eyes were closed, but there was 
a very apparent twitching of the eyelids, while the lips 
were now and again convulsed, as if in the most intense 
agony. After lying for about an hour in this position, sev- 
eral of the crowd took hold of the body by the legs and 
dragged it from one side of the street to the other. This 
operation was gone through with several times, when the 
crowd again left the body lying in its original position. 

" Had Colonel O'Brien been a man of weak constitu- 
tion, he would certainly have ceased to exist long before 
this time. He was, however, a man of great natural 
strength, and this fact probably kept him breathing longer 
than would any common person. The crowd remarked 
this, and watched his every slightest movement with the 
most intense anxiety. Now and then the head would be 
raised from the ground, while an application of a foot from 
one of the crowd would dash the already mangled mass 
again to the earth. This conduct was carried on for some 
time ; and when our reporter left the body was still lying- 
in the street, the last spark of existence evidently having 
taken its flight. 

" Probably the worst feature of the affray in this 
neighborhood was the death of the two or three unfortu- 
nate women who happenened to be on the ground at the 



552 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

time. One woman's life was saved by the timely services 
of Dr. E. D. Connery, who extracted a ball from her per- 
son. This gentleman's valuable services were brought into 
requisition in other places where a number of parties had 
been wounded. These events, of course, inflamed the other 
women of that ward, and they turned out in large force 
to aid their relatives and friends when any opportunity 
should occur. 

" At four o'clock everything was comparatively quiet 
where the real fighting had taken place. An immense 
crowd, however, still remained. They were not congre- 
gated in one solid mass, but were assembled in groups, a 
few yards apart, of about two hundred each. There was 
no boisterous discussion. The people conversed in tones 
of studied ease, and did not make any remarks of a blood- 
thirsty nature. Every brow had its frown, every lip was 
compressed, some cheeks were blanched — not with fear, 
but with intense anger. There was not a word uttered 
counseling cessation, but a vigorous prosecution of the 
work in which they were engaged was urged. Each house 
of business was closed, and private dwellings had their 
doors and windows properly barred and locked. Dark- 
ness was rapidly stealing on, but the crowd still lingered." 
The negroes of the city were the especial object of 
the fury of the mob. Their houses were sacked and 
burned, and they themselves hunted out, tracked, seized 
upon and murdered. These poor creatures became so 
terror-stricken, that those who were able skulked out of 
the city, and those who were left hid away, and did not 
venture to show themselves in the light of day. 

It was clear, whatever may have been the original 
motive of the rioters, that it had now degenerated into a 
lust for blood and plunder. Houses and shops were 
broken into for no other purpose than to steal their valu- 
able contents. Thus, a throng of men, women, and chil- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 553 

dren sacked the clothing store in Catherine Street, of 
Brooks Brothers, who were not in any respect objects 
of political odium. 

The second day of the riot closed with unabated 
gloom, and was followed by a night of wakeful anxiety, 
for the constant tolling of the fire-bells, telling of repeated 
house-burnings, foreboded a general conflagration. 

On the next day, the third of the riot, Wednesday, 
July 15th, the mob still held the city in its cruel sway. 
The suspension of the draft was officially announced. 
Governor Seymour proclaimed the city and county of 
New York to be in a state of insurrection. Mayor Opdyke 
hopefully declared that the riot had " been in a good 
measure subjected to the control of the public author- 
ities," and invited the citizens to form voluntary associa- 
tions to patrol and guard the districts in which they lived, 
against the " fragments of the mob prowling about for 
plunder," and to save " the military and police from the 
exhaustion of continued movements." He further de- 
clared, that "the various lines of omnibuses, railways, and 
telegraphs must be put in full operation immediately," 
and promised " that adequate military protection against 
their further interruption would be furnished on applica- 
tion to the military authorities of the State." 

The Roman Catholic Archbishop Hughes addressed 
his flock, saying : 

" In spite of Mr. Greeley's assault upon the Irish, in 
the present disturbed condition of the city, I will appeal 
not only to them, but to all persons who love God and 
revere the holy Catholic religion which they profess, to 
respect also the laws of man and the peace of society, to 
retire to their homes with as little delay as possible, and 
disconnect themselves from the seemingly deliberate 
intention to disturb the peace and social rights of the 
citizens of New York. If they are Catholics, or of such 

70 



554 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

of them as are Catholics, I ask, for God's sake — for the 
sake of their holy religion — for my own sake, if they have 
any respect for the Episcopal authority — to dissolve their 
bad associations with reckless men, who have little re- 
gard either for divine or human laws." 

The aldermen of New York unanimously voted an 
ordinance by which $2,500,000 were appropriated to 
relieve those who might be drafted for compulsory ser- 
vice. 

The city still wore the gloom of the previous days. 
" General commerce," said a journalist, " appeared to 
stand still. Storekeepers, in neighborhoods where a mul- 
titude of people sacked dwellings, anticipated further 
attacks. In the principal streets the shutters were kept 
up, and the proprietors kept their doors ajar, in order to 
suddenly close them in case of danger. There were 
few, if any, jewelers' marts open. The precious gems, 
gold, and trinkets were prudently deemed too costly a 
temptation to be exposed to apprehended seizure." 

The riot still raged. Crowds of excited people gathered 
in the districts which had been the scenes of violence, 
and while in all they threatened to resume them, in some 
they actually did so with increased fury. The Arsenal 
in the Seventh Avenue, the constant object of the popu- 
lar menace, had been placed in a state of military defense. 
Mountain howitzers, brass field-pieces, and picket-guards 
commanded the approaches, and a body of troops, under 
Major-General Sandford, encamped within the inclosure 
and occupied the neighboring streets. Close to the mili- 
tary line, a large crowd gathered from an early hour in 
the morning and threatened an attack. 

" About eight o'clock the first engagement," reported 
a journalist,* " took place in this part of the city between 

* New York Herald. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 555 

the military and the people. News was received that a 
large crowd had congregated in the neighborhood of 
Eighth Avenue and Thirty-second Street. The crowd 
numbered between four thousand and five thousand men. 
They had been collected in that vicinity for some time, 
apparently in doubt where to move. A. negro unfortu- 
nately made his appearance, when one of the men called 
him an opprobrious name. The negro made a similar 
rejoinder, and after a few words the indiscreet colored 
man pulled out a pistol and shot the man. With one 
simultaneous yell the crowd rushed on him. He was 
lifted high in the air by fifty stalwart arms and then 
dashed forcibly on the pavement. Kicks were adminis- 
tered by all who could get near enough. Some men then 
took hold of him by the legs and battered his head sev- 
eral times on the pavement. Life was now nearly ex- 
tinct, and a rope called for. The desired article was in a 
moment produced, and the black man's body was soon 
after suspended from a neighboring lamp-post. The pas- 
sions of the people were now fully aroused, and an assault 
was made on the neighboring houses to search for negroes. 
A scene of this kind soon degenerated into one of indis- 
criminate destruction. Word was passed along to fire the 
houses and burn the niggers out. At this time the mili- 
tary, consisting of a strong detachment of infantry and 
one twelve-pounder mountain howitzer, arrived on the 
ground, under command of Colonel Winslow. The people 
were too intent on the work of destruction to heed their 
arrival. The howitzer was unlimbered, and poured a 
deadly charge of canister into the crowd. Signs of resist- 
ance were evinced, and an evident determination to wrest 
the gun from the hands of the artillerists. The infantry 
received the order to fire, and again a shower of bullets 
thinned the crowd. No symptoms were evinced of their 
retiring, and the howitzer again thundered forth a deadly 



556 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

discharge of canister. The fire was by this time too hot 
for the crowd to withstand, and with shrieks and yells 
they commenced to scatter in all directions. During the 
whole time the military had been under a strong fire of 
stones, brickbats, pistol and gun shots, not only from the 
crowd in their front, but from the housetops. The crowd 
dispersing, orders were given to the soldiers to return. 
After cutting down the body of the negro the military 
commenced to fall slowly back. The crowd at once re- 
assembled and closed up in their rear. Four separate 
times, before the crowd w T ould desist from the pursuit, 
was the order given to the infantry to fire. After con- 
siderable difficulty Colonel Winslow and his command re- 
turned to the Arsenal, after having successfully carried 
out the orders they had received. 

" Shortly before twelve o'clock, Colonel Magee was 
ordered to proceed to Thirty-fourth Street, near Sixth 
Avenue, to rescue eighteen colored men who were mo- 
mentarily in danger of being assaulted by the people. 
The Colonel went off with four men, and succeeded in 
bringing the darkeys to the Arsenal. Nobody hurt. 

" During the morning the crowd on Seventh Avenue 
and Thirty-fourth Street increased in numbers and bold- 
ness. The pressure from the rear forced those in front 
to press too closely on the pickets, who were in moment- 
ary danger of being surrounded and deprived of their 
arms. Brickbats, stones, and occasionally pistol and gun 
shots were fired at the troops. When the advance was 
witnessed from the Arsenal, the howitzers were planted 
to sweep the avenue. A detachment of the One Hundred 
and Seventy-eighth New York Volunteers, under com- 
mand of Captain Gandolfo, and Lieutenants Meding and 
Blackmire, were ordered out to charge on the people. 
On reaching the crowd a volley was fired over their 
heads, and a general stampede was the result. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 557 

" About one o'clock another disturbance took place in 
Thirty- third Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. 
A large crowd had assembled and commenced sacking 
some of the houses in that vicinity. Captain Doles, of 
General Hunter's staff, who had volunteered his services, 
was ordered to proceed to the scene of the disturbance 
with a detachment of the Twentieth New York Artillery, 
armed with rifles. The crowd dispersed on the appear- 
ance of the military, who then had orders to right-about- 
face and return to quarters. The people then commenced 
to hoot them. A shower of brickbats, stones, and other 
missiles were fired at them. In the melee a number of 
negroes rushed by to take refuge in one of the houses. 
This sight maddened the crowd, and a rush was made to 
intercept the darkeys. Captain Doles ordered his men to 
fire a volley into them, which was done ; but the crowd 
still pressed on; the soldiers became enraged at their 
persistence, and, without waiting for orders, another vol- 
ley was fired. This was an unfortunate occurrence, as 
one of the shots wounded a fireman who was at the time 
busily engaged in cleaning some hose. 

" About two o'clock information was received at the 
Arsenal that a large number of muskets were secreted in 
a store on Broadway, above Thirty-third Street. Colonel 
William Meyer was ordered to proceed to the spot, with a 
detachment of thirty-three men belonging to Hawkins's 
Zouaves, for the purpose of seizing the arms to prevent 
their filling into the hands of the people. Colonel Meyer 
conducted his command through Thirty-fifth Street, across 
Sixth Avenue, thence to Broadway and Thirty-second 
Street. The premises were entered, and, in spite of a 
large and constantly increasing crowd, the arms were 
brought out. An Irishman, passing at the time with his 
cart, was pressed into the service, and obliged, much 
against his will, to convey them to the Arsenal. The 



558 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

people followed the cart and its escort for some dis- 
tance ; but no forcible demonstration took place. The 
party returned to the Arsenal after an absence of about 
forty minutes, and reported the successful conclusion of 
their mission. 

" Many times during the day a scattering fire was 
heard from the pickets. The troops then sprang to arms, 
while the volunteer citizens were placed in position to 
support the artillery. The guns were wheeled round to 
command the threatened point, and everything seemed to 
indicate an immediate and desperate attack. In most 
instances, however, the demonstration was quelled by the 
discharge of a volley into the air, when the crowd, which 
in many instances was largely composed of women and 
children, instantly disappeared after firing a few stones at 
the soldiers. 

" At five o'clock Colonel Sherwood's battery of rifled 
six-pounders and a strong force of inftxntry, under com- 
mand of Colonel Meyer, were ordered to the corner of 
Twenty-seventh Street and Seventh Avenue, to quell a 
serious disturbance which had broken out at that point. 
On arriving there, they found the people busily engaged 
in rifling and gutting the stores and private houses. 
Flames were issuing from the windows, and the scene 
resembled closely many similar ones which our citizens 
during the last few days have been called to look on. 
Suspended from a lamp-post was the body of a black man 
who had been hung up a few minutes before. The fire- 
men made their appearance on the ground at the same 
time as the military. The people who had been engaged 
in the work of destruction retired behind the firemen, thus 
placing a barrier of our brave firemen between themselves 
and the military. It was this circumstance only which 
prevented the discharge of the rifled field-pieces. From 
the housetops the usual salute of brickbats and stones 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



559 



was showered down on the military. Several citizens 
stepped up to Colonel Meyer and informed him that 
men were stationed on the housetops, with rifles in their 
hands, ready to fire on his men. The Colonel thereupon 
ordered his men to keep a sharp lookout, and if any shots 
were fired from the housetops, to deliver a volley in- 
stantly. At this time Judge McCunn appeared on the 
scene, and entreated the Colonel ' to spare those innocent 
people.' The Judge informed the Colonel that he had, by 
authority from Governor Seymour, been using his influ- 
ence to quell the disturbance. Colonel Meyer replied that 
he, as a military man, had but to obey orders, and if the 
people attempted to advance or fire on his men, he should 
certainly order it to be returned by a volley. The infantry 
and artillery then slowly retired, and had hardly reached 
the Arsenal ere the disturbance broke out with renewed vio- 
lence, and word was brought to General Sandford that two 
more negroes were dangling in mid air from the lamp-posts. 
" The pickets brought in a large number of prisoners, 
dirty, ragged, and bloody in appearance, but sullen and 
determined in demeanor. 

" The colored folks in the Twentieth Ward suffered 
very severely. Numberless were the atrocities perpe- 
trated on them. They were hunted from their houses by 
the score. When caught, they were hung up to lamp- 
posts, or beaten, jumped on, kicked, and struck with iron 
bars and heavy wooden clubs. At one time there were 
between fifty and sixty of these people in the Arsenal. 
Many of them were horribly maimed and disfigured. No 
respect had been paid either to sex, age, or condition. One 
woman was burned out of her house who had only been 
confined on Tuesday. * * * Many affecting scenes took 
place between different members of the same family who 
had given each other up as lost, and met unexpectedly in 
the Arsenal. One poor fellow had been obliged to run for 



560 HISTORY OP NEW YORK CITY. 

his life, and in about an hour his wife arrived in deep dis- 
tress ; but when she saw her ' old man ' alive and all right, 
except a ghastly wound on the head, her joy was bound- 
less, and could find no better vent for it than by flinging 
her arms around her husband's neck." 

" Between seven and eight o'clock p. m.," says a news- 
paper reporter, " about one hundred soldiers, dressed in 
citizens' clothes and accompanied by a portion of Haw- 
kins's Zouaves, who were in uniform, with one field-piece, 
marched up the First Avenue. The crowd, at the time, 
were congregated in the street, corner Nineteenth Street, 
not doing anything very obnoxious. While the soldiers 
were orderly marching along, all at once the military 
were fired upon by some man of the crowd in the rear. 
The soldiers turned and killed the man who had fired. 

Thursday, July 16th, opened more cheerfully. Sev- 
eral of the militia regiments which had been absent on 
service had returned to the city, and its inhabitants felt 
more confident of security. The mob, though somewhat 
awed by the arrival of fresh troops, was still defiant and 
occasionally resisted the soldiers, who, however, succeeded, 
after several severe encounters in which many lives were 
lost, in establishing their ascendancy. 

On Friday, the 17th day of July, Mayor Opdyke pro- 
claimed : 

" The riotous assemblages have been dispersed. Busi- 
ness is running in its usual channels. The various lines 
of omnibuses, railway, and telegraph have resumed their 
ordinary operations. Few symptoms of disorder remain, 
except in a small district in the eastern part of the city, 
comprising a part of the Eighteenth and Twenty-first 
Wards. The police is everywhere alert. A sufficient 
military force is now here to suppress any illegal move- 
ment, however formidable." 

The Federal Government, in the meantime, had pre- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



561 



pared to vindicate its contemned authority. Major-Gen- 
eral Dix was relieved of his command at Fortress Monroe 
and ordered to New York, as commander of the Depart- 
ment of the East in place of General Wool, and Genera 
Brown was superseded by General Canby in the command 
of the United States troops in the city and harbor. A 
lai-e force was, at the same time, ordered to New York 
and soon some thirty thousand Federal soldiers occupied 
the city and neighborhood, when public halls were turned 
into barracks and parks into camping-grounds. With its 
authority thus fortified, the Government disclaimed all 
responsibility for the suspension of the draft, and declared 
its determination to prosecute it. The civic authorities, 
too became less disposed to conciliate the violations of the 
law and Mayor Opdyke vetoed the aldermanic ordinance. 
The supervisors of the State and county, however, made 
a compromise by voting a large sum to relieve the fami- 
lies of conscripts and to pay bounties to volunteers. 1 he 
President of the United States, after a disputatious cor- 
respondence with the Governor of New York, agreed to 
modify the quotas, but refused to postpone the draft until 
a decision might be obtained in regard to its legality. 
The draft accordingly took place in New York during 
the month of August, without the least attempt to resist it 
The exact number of persons killed in this not is not 
known The police estimated it in round numbers at 
over one thousand. The mob and the negro population 
were naturally the greatest sufferers, the losses of the 
military and police force being comparatively slight. Ine 
city subsequently paid about one million five hundred 
thousand dollars as an indemnity for the losses sustained 
during the riot.* . 

" * The o-reater portion of the account of this riot has been derived from 
The War with the South (published by Virtue & Yorston), which, in turn, was 
rnostlTtaken from the accounts of newspaper reporters who were on the spot, 
and in most instances eye-witnesses of the incidents they describe. 



562 HISTORY OF NEW TOEK CITY. 

This is the history of the Draft Rtot so far as can be 
ascertained, for in all probability its secret history, as 
well as the real instigators who, from behind the curtain, 
pulled the wires, will never transpire. But a foul blot 
upon the fair escutcheon of New York must ever remain 
the " Draft Riot " — a riot which, differs in every particu- 
lar from those which have been narrated in preceding 
pages. Unlike the " Negro Riot," the city was in no 
apparent danger from the torch of the incendiary ; un- 
like the "Doctors' Riot," the graves of relatives had not 
been despoiled ; unlike the " Election Riot," the excite- 
ment of a political canvass could not be pleaded in exten- 
uation ; unlike the " Flour" and the " Bread Riots," people 
were not clamoring for bread ; unlike the " Stone-cutters' 
Riot," no trade or interest was threatened by supposed 
destruction; unlike the "Five Points" and the "Astor 
Place Riots," the pride of nationality was not touched ; 
unlike the " Police Riot," there was no prospect of per- 
sons being thrown out of employment ; unlike the 
" Quarantine Riot," there was no fear that the seeds of a 
dire contagion would be scattered over a community. 
The " Draft Riot " was in no respect like any of these, 
but was gotten up simply to gratify shameful, wanton, 
and wicked passions, and ended in a crusade against an 
inoffensive race who had done their murderers no harm. 
Utterly unprovoked, and without the shadow of excuse 
or palliation, the " Draft Riot" stands out, and shall for- 
ever stand out, black and hideous in the city's history. 



CHAPTER XII. 

The year 1865 was marked by the substitution of a 
paid for a volunteer Fire Department. The history of 
this branch of municipal organization, from the 
time of its origin in the early Dutch period up to 
the present day, is replete with so much interest that it 
has been deemed best to wait until the present year before 
considering it as a whole.* 

In 1662, an incident occurred of no ordinary impor- 
tance. This was the importation by New York city of 
two fire-engines from London. There was no subject upon 
which, at that time, the inhabitants of the city felt a 
deeper interest than the most effectual means of extin- 
guishing fires ; for the loss of property by conflagrations 
was a calamity to which the city, from its first settlement, 
had been peculiarly exposed. The ground upon which it 
was originally built was very irregular. Great inequal- 

* The exceedingly interesting account of the origin and history of the Fire 
Department, to which the present chapter is devoted, is taken from Chief-Justice 
Daly's address delivered in 1871, and entitled The Origin and History of the 
New York Fire Department. This address has never been printed ; and I 
cannot sufficiently thank Judge Daly for his kindness in allowing me the use 
of it for this work. Without this chapter the history of the city would be 
very incomplete. This address also contains such a vast amount of clas- 
sical and curious information in regard to the fires in ancient times, and the 
mode of extinguishing them, that it is to be hoped that the author will 
allow it to be published in pamphlet form. The address is given verbatim. 



5G4 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

ity of surface was produced by hills or elevated ground, 
the communication between which was interrupted by 
natural obstructions ; for when the water did not find its 
way through the valley in streams, it collected between 
the elevated ground in numerous places, in ponds and 
marshes. These difficulties presented formidable obsta- 
cles even to the hardy race that founded the city, so that 
little effort was made at the outset to level it. 

The houses were at first huddled together in close 
proximity to the fort which had been built near the site 
of the present Battery, for the common protection, and 
were afterward distributed here and there, as the interest 
and convenience of each proprietor dictated. As the set- 
tlement grew larger, and streets and lanes became requi- 
site to facilitate communication, they were necessarily 
narrow, crowded, and short, with but two exceptions, — the 
Hooghe Straat (the present Pearl Street), which ran along 
the water, and the Heere Straat (the present Broadway), 
which, following the ridge of an ascending hill, extended 
in a straight line from the Fort to the City Wall, or Wall 
Street. A city so irregularly distributed, from the diffi- 
culties of its natural situation, presented numerous obstruc- 
tions to that ready communication and rapid action which 
are so necessary in a time of fire ; in addition to which, the 
houses, for many years, were built exclusively of wood, 
the roofs were thatched with reeds or straw, and the 
chimneys were also of wood. Exposed during the long 
heat of the summer to the action of the sun, they ignited 
quickly and burned rapidly ; while, during the winter, the 
cold at that period was usually so intense that it was 
necessary to keep huge logs blazing in the great open Dutch 
fire-place, which carried up through the wooden chimney 
a large volume of heat, making it in time exceedingly 
combustible ; so that the catching on fire of a chimney, or 
the burning-down of a building, or of many, was a very 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 565 

ordinary occurrence* The means for extinguishing fire 
moreover, were very inadequate. There was no want of 
water The little settlement was surrounded on three 
sides by the bay, the East and North Kivers; and a 
stream deep enough for market-boats to ascend extended 
through the middle of it, flowing m from the bay up 
through the center of the present Broad Street as far as 
Exchange Place ; in addition to which there was generally 
a well or cistern in the garden of each house. 

But though water was abundant, the transportation ot 
it quickly and in sufficient quantity was no easy matter. It 
had to be carried by hand; and as it was many years 
before any public regulation was established to secure a 
prompt supply of it in such emergences, ,t may be im- 
agined a scene of confusion must have ensued when tubs, 
pails or other means of conveying water had to be hastily 
mprovised to stay the progress of a fire. To remedy tins, 

„ t ,i-„„ ;„ 1(U8 Four firewardens were 
measures were taken in roio. *uui i 

appointed by Governor Stuyvesant and his council whose 
duty it was declared to be to prevent all accidents by fire , 
to visit all around, and see that every one kept his chimney 
clean by sweeping; and, in case any one was found to be 
deficient, to demand immediately a penalty of three g. kl- 
ers-about$1.30; and the ordinance further declared that 
if any house was burned through the carelessness of the 
occupant, he was to be subjected to a fine of thirty gmkl- 
ers-about $11 ; from which fines a fund was to be created 
for the purchase of leather buckets and hooks and ladders 

in Holland. _ 

It might naturally be supposed that a sense of common 
danger would have made every inhabitant vigilant to 
euard against the occurrence of such calamities, and that 
I regulation of this nature would have met with very 
general approval. But our Dutch ^ncesto^were__pro- 



566 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

verbiaily slow. They were exceedingly averse to any 
change which interfered with their personal habits, or 
settled mode of conducting their affairs ; and, when such 
changes were sought to be brought about by the instru- 
mentality of law or ordinances, they were very intractable 
and difficult to manage. 

Householders did not co-operate with the authorities 
in giving effect to a regulation so manifestly essential to 
the public safety. On the contrary, the firewardens 
experienced the greatest difficulty in performing the duty 
of inspecting chimneys, the Dutch housewives being 
especially belligerent and abusive. The records of the 
Court of Burgomasters and Schepens aver that Magdalen 
Dircks was brought before it ; and it was proved, by 
her own confession, that, as she passed the house of Fire- 
warden Litschoe, then the principal tavern-keeper, and a 
very considerable personage, she and her sister called 
out, as that important individual stood in his own door- 
way, " There is the chimney-sweep ;" and the worshipful 
court gave it as its judgment that such things could not 
or ought not to be tolerated, and fined Magdalen two 
pounds Flemish. But it was not confined to the women. 
Even a man of law, Solomon La Chair, afterward a notary 
and a very prominent official, was brought before the 
court for abusing the firewardens by calling them 
chimney-sweepers. " It is not seemly," says the court, 
" that men should mock and scoff at those appointed to 
any office — yea, especially to such a necessary office ; " and 
Solomon was accordingly mulcted. 

But it was not, it seems, even in the power of the 
court to uphold the firewardens. So many indignities 
were heaped upon them that the office became undesirable, 
its duties were gradually relaxed, and the ordinance fell 
into neglect. 

As these four firewardens were the pioneers in the 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 567 

important duty of saving the city from conflagrations, it 
may be well to mention who they were. The first, 
Martin Krieger, kept a famous tavern immediately oppo- 
site to the Bowling Green, during the early part of the 
Dutch period. He was afterward, when a municipal 
government was established, one of the two first Burgo- 
masters ; was subsequently a member of Governor Stuyve- 
sant's council ; and, down to the capture of the city by 
the English, he filled many important offices. The next, 
Thomas Hall, was an Englishman, who had been taken 
prisoner by the Dutch, and, being released upon parole, 
concluded to remain in New Amsterdam, where, in course 
of time, he became a man of wealth and influence, filling 
many public stations. He was the owner of a large farm 
in the vicinity of Spruce and Beekman Streets, which 
afterward passed into the hands of William Beekman, the 
ancestor of the Beekman family. The third, Adrian 
Wyser, was at first one of the officials of the Company by 
whom New Netherland was founded, and afterward a 
member of the Executive Council. The last, George 
Woolsey, was an Englishman, who came here and became 
the agent of Isaac Allerton, one of the principal Dutch 
traders, and who afterward became the proprietor of a 
plantation in Flushing. 

It has been stated that the ordinance which led to the 
appointment of these four firewardens fell into disuse ; 
and, as a consequence of the neglect of the precau- 
tionary measures it was designed to enforce, the number 
of fires greatly increased. At length, in 1G57, after nine 
years had gone by, another ordinance was resorted to, the 
preamble of which discloses the perilous condition of things, 
by the passage that " fires were apprehended, even to the 
entire destruction of the city." The authorities were now 
earnestly aroused. Energetic measures were adopted. All 
thatched roofs and wooden chimneys were ordered to be 



568 HISTORY OF NEW YOEK CITY. 

taken down within four months, under a penalty of twenty- 
five guilders ($10) for every month's delay ; but so 
difficult was it even then to enforce this indispensable 
regulation, that the execution of it was postponed — first 
for four months, then for a year, and afterward for ten 
years. The difficulty of complying with it was, in fact, 
very great. There was a want of material for the cover- 
ing of roofs, and the getting-out of stone for the chimneys 
was a laborious and troublesome process. Bricks and tiles 
were first imported from Holland in 1659, no doubt in 
consequence of this very ordinance. In the previous 
year, 1G58, the subject of being prepared for the occur- 
rence of fire was also taken into consideration, and it was 
decreed that for every house, whether large or small, one 
beaver, or its equivalent, eight guilders ($3), should be 
paid, to raise a sum of money to procure from the father- 
land one hundred and fifty leather fire-buckets, and for 
the making of some fire-ladders and fire-hooks. The pre- 
amble to this ordinance sets forth that it is customary, in 
all well-regulated cities, to have fire-buckets, ladders, and 
hooks in readiness at the corners of streets, and in public- 
houses, in time of need ; and that it was then especially 
necessary in New Amsterdam, as the houses were chiefly 
of wood, there being but a small number built of stone. 
But the raising of money then by tax was a very slow 
process. It probably came in so tardily that the project 
of sending to the fatherland was given up hopelessly, for 
the all-sufficient reason that the Amsterdam merchants 
were not in the habit of fulfilling the orders of the little 
municipality which bore the name of their city on the 
other side of the Atlantic, unless they had some better 
assurance for payment than its promises. The hooks and 
ladders were made in the city, and were distributed about 
in different places ; but the most essential things of all, 
the leather buckets, were wanting. The Worshipful 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 569 

Court of Burgomasters and Schepens now bestirred them- 
selves. The shoemakers of the city, who were then seven 
in number, were summoned to meet the city authorities 
on the 1st of August, 1658, to consider the grave question 
of the possibility of making the buckets in the city. 
Four of them attended. The first one to whom it was 
proposed declined the arduous undertaking. The second 
declared that he had no material. The third ventured to 
make one hundred for six guilders two stivers a piece, or 
about $2.50 ; and the fourth was brought to engage to make 
the remaining fifty upon the same terms. Six months 
further passed, when at last, on the 20th of January, 
1658, the one hundred and fifty buckets were brought to 
the Stadt House, or City Hall, which then stood upon 
Pearl Street, facing Coenties Slip ; and being regularly 
numbered, the first fifty were deposited in the City Hall, 
and the remaining portion were divided in lots of ten and 
twelve, and placed at the residences of nine of the prin- 
cipal inhabitants. 

The next step was the establishment of public wells — 
a measure dictated not only by a regard for the public 
safety in time of fire, but also for the public health. 
Before the completion of that great work, the Croton 
Aqueduct, the water required for domestic purposes was 
probably worse than that of any other city of equal extent 
in the world. That obtained from the wells of individ- 
ual proprietors, which were the chief source of supply for 
the first forty-four years, was so bad that even horses 
refused to drink it. In the year now under consideration, 
the first public well was dug in front of the Fort, upon 
the site of a natural spring ; and affording, as it did, a 
supply of comparatively wholesome water, it became a 
great resort of the inhabitants during the remaining period 
of the Dutch occupation. 

This year (1658) and the preceding one were especially 

72 



570 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

distinguished by energetic measures for the improvement 
of the city. The Dutch burghers were now in reality 
aroused. In addition to these precautionary measures for 
the extinguishment of fires, a rattle watch was established, 
consisting of eight men, the duty being imposed upon each 
of the citizens in turn. The city was surveyed and regu- 
lated. Streets were for the first time paved with stone — 
one of them, Stone Street, still retaining the name that 
was then given to it. With the exception of Stone Street, 
the pavement extended only to the width of ten feet from 
the front of the houses, the center of the street being left 
without pavement, for the more easy absorption of the 
water, as there were no sewers. Names were also given 
to many of the streets ; and, in 1660, a brick-yard was 
established in the vicinity of the present Park ; and though 
the enterprise was not profitable to its projectors, it led to 
the use of brick in the construction of houses. And the 
progress must have been very rapid ; for Denton, who 
visited the city ten years afterward, in 1670, records the 
fact that the houses were then mostly of brick or stone, 
covered with red and black tiles, giving to the city, he 
says, " a pleasing aspect, when seen from an elevated 
height." 

This active movement for the improvement of the 
city was, no doubt, to be attributed to the fact that the 
inhabitants had obtained from the States-General in 
Holland, four years previously, what they had long 
petitioned for, — a municipal government, and with it the 
enjoyment of those local privileges to which they had been 
accustomed in the cities, towns, and villages of their 
fatherland ; or, to express it in different words, the in- 
estimable right of local self-government. They had been 
ruled exclusively before this by a governor and by a 
council selected by him, who administered affairs with 
special reference to the interest of a trading corporation 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 571^ 

in Amsterdam, by whom New Netherland was founded 
as a commercial speculation ; and though the inhabitants 
were nominally under the protection of the Dutch Govern- 
ment, they were so far away that they were completely 
subject to the will of governors, who were at times 
capricious, in some instances grossly incompetent, and 
generally arbitrary. Such a government was not in 
harmony with the interest of the individual citizen. It 
retarded progress by taking away all desire for it ; and 
when the inhabitants were released from its restraint by 
the establishment of a municipal body, elected by them- 
selves, which was alike a court of justice and a repre- 
sentative council clothed with the power of municipal 
government, the effect was speedily felt in the active 
movement and public spirit which dictated the improve- 
ments to which allusion has been made.* 

The English appear to have been particularly vigilant 
in the adoption of precautionary measures against fires, 
and it would seem that there was every reason for them 
to be so. When they repossessed themselves of the city, 
in 1674, it contained three hundred and twenty-two 
houses ; and eight years after, the number is put down 
at two hundred and two, — a diminution which cannot 
be accounted for in any other way than by the fre- 
quent occurrence of conflagrations, t One of their first 

* For an account of the judiciary in the Dutch period, written by Judge C. 
P. Daly, see Appendix VII. 

f In the early part of the Middle Ages, the dwellings of the common people 
in most countries of Europe were of timber ; and, from this cause and the want 
of efficient means to extinguish conflagrations, fires were of frequent occurrence, 
and were among the most dreaded of calamities. There are records of the 
destruction of whole towns, the efforts of the inhabitants being utterly power- 
less to arrest the progress of the flames. This condition of things gave rise to 
a custom which prevailed throughout Europe, aud in many countries was 
enforced by law, by which, at the ringing of a bell at sunset in summer and 
eight o'clock in winter, all the inhabitants of a city, town, burgh, or village, 
raked the fire together upon the hearth, and put over it a brass cover, of a shape 
adapted to the purpose, which was called a curfew. The bell tolled for a quar- 



572 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



public measures of this description, in 1677, three years 
subsequent to the re-occupation, was to order the con- 
struction of six public wells, — the principal part of the 
expense of which was imposed upon the inhabitants 
of the streets where they were severally located. This 
is the earliest measure recorded for assessing the cost 
of public improvements upon the owners of growing 
property, — a policy which has ever since been adhered to, 
though the fairness or justice of it may be questioned. In 
1687, seven additional public wells were ordered to be 
made in different streets. Eight pounds was contributed 
by the city for each well. The residue of the expense was 
imposed upon those found to be chiefly benefited by its 
establishment in their vicinity ; and they were debarred 
from the use of it until they had paid their proportionate 
part. These wells were placed in the middle of the 
street, and the water was raised by the old Egyptian 
method of a balance-pole and bucket, a mode still in use 
in many parts of the country. All these were known by 
popular names, as De Remiers well, Janson well, De Kay 

ter of an hour, to admonish every one that the time had come to put on the 
curfew, to extinguish the lights in each household, and for all to retire to rest. 
It was called the " curfew bell," and at the sound of it every occupation ceased, 
and all merriment was hushed : there was a solemn seriousness about it that 
recommended it as a fitting image to the poets. There are frequent references 
to it in Chaucer and in Shakespeare, and all will remember the opening line 
of Gray's celebrated Elegy, 

11 The curfew tolls the knell of parting day." 
The poets made use of it legitimately ; but it is a curious fact that English his- 
torians, and even legal writers, ignorant of its origin, and the fact that it was 
simply a precautionary regulation against fire, have perpetuated the belief that 
in England it was a badge of tyranny imposed, after the Conquest, by the Nor- 
mans upon the Saxons, to make them feel the extent of their subjugation. 
Even so celebrated a writer as Blackstone, after declaring that England at this 
period was governed under as absolute a slavery as it was in the power of a war- 
like and ambitious prince to impose, enumerates as one of the proofs of it, that in 
cities and towns all company was obliged to disperse, and fire and candle had 
to be extinguished at eight at night, at the sound of the melancholy curfew ; 
whereas the custom, or regulation, had existed long previously, in Saxon times, 
and has been traced up to the days of Alfred. — Judge Daly's Address. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 573 

well, &c. ; and the water procured from most of them 
would in this day be regarded as very bad. Kalm, a Swedish 
traveler and naturalist, who visited the city in 1748, seventy 
years afterward, says : " There is no good water to be 
met with in the town ; but a little way out there is a 
spring of good water, which the inhabitants take for their 
tea and kitchen purposes. Those, however, who are less 
delicate upon this point make use of the water from the 
wells in the town, although it is very bad. The want of 
good water bears heavily upon the horses of strangers 
who come into the town, for the animals do not like to 
drink the water obtained from the wells." The spring of 
good water to which Kalm refers, was the famous tea- 
water pump, a little west of the present line of Chatham 
Street, opposite Roosevelt Street, which was still in use 
forty years ago, standing in the middle of a large 
grocery-store, — all who dealt with the grocer having free 
access to it, and others, it is presumed, for a pecuniary con- 
sideration. In fact, down to the time of the completion of 
the Croton Aqueduct, the water-vender was one of the 
features of the city. With a hogshead mounted upon a 
cart, he traversed the streets, morning and afternoon, sup- 
plying his customers with pure and wholesome water at a 
small charge per pail. 

Another important measure was introduced by the 
English in 1658, during the period of their first occupation, 
which was the lighting of the city by night ; and, as the 
method adopted was a very primitive one, it is here given 
in the language of the ordinance : " Every seventh house 
in all the streets shall, in the dark time of the morn, cause 
a lantern and candle to be hung out on a pole, the charge 
to be defrayed equally by the inhabitants of the said seven 
houses ;" and upon very dark nights every inhabitant was 
required to have a lighted candle in his window. 

Another of these measures was the employment of a 



574 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

regular night-watch, composed of men who were paid for 
their services by the city, instead of imposing that duty, 
as the Dutch had done, upon all the citizens in turn. The 
watch was set at nine o'clock in the evening (when the 
city-gates were shut and locked), and was kept up until 
day-break. It was maintained, however, only during the 
winter months — that is, from the beginning of November 
to the end of March, that being the period when the 
greatest danger from fire was apprehended. At the ring- 
ing of the bell of the Fort at nine o'clock, a sergeant- 
major, with his halberd, proceeded, followed by the watch, 
to each of the city-gates, which he locked for the night. 
He then stationed each man at his particular post, and, to 
secure the vigilant discharge of his duty, each watchman 
was required to go, once every hour, through that part of 
the city which was allotted to him, and with a bell to pro- 
claim the time of the night and the state of the weather, — 
a regulation which, no doubt, secured a vigilant discharge 
of the watchman's duty. But it must have been somewhat 
disturbing to all but sound sleepers to have had their 
slumbers broken at regular intervals by the loud ringing 
of a bell and a hoarse voice announcing such information 
as, " Past two o'clock, and a dark, cloudy morning." This 
practice was borrowed from Germany. In the German 
bursrhs or towns, it was at first the custom to station their 
guardians of the night in the steeples of churches or other 
elevated places; and, as a security against their going 
asleep, to require them every hour to proclaim the time 
of the night. When this was changed to a regular patrol- 
ling of the streets, the custom of calling the hour was con- 
tinued probably for the same reason ; but, among the 
musical people, this duty was relieved by a very poetical 
feature, for the German watchman accompanied the call- 
ing of the time of the night by singing the verse of a song 
inculcating some precept of the Christian religion, the 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 575 

words of which were so arranged or varied as to adapt it 
to the particular time of the night. A translation of a 
verse of one of these watchmen's songs is here presented 
as a specimen : 

" Hark ye, neighbors, and hear me tell 
Ten now strikes on the belfry bell. 
Ten were the holy commandments given 
To man below, by God in heaven. 
Human watch from harm can't ward us ; 
Yet God will watch and guide and guard us. 
May he, through his heavenly might, 
Give us all a blessed night." 

But, notwithstanding these precautionary measures, 
the want of efficient means for extinguishing fire was 
severely felt ; and a stringent ordinance, passed in 1686, 
records the fact of their frequent occurrence, and of the 
great damage done from the lack of efficient means to 
arrest a fire after it broke out. This ordinance enacted 
that every house having two chimneys should be provided 
with a fire-bucket, and that those having more than two 
fire-places should have two buckets. This, however, did 
not suffice ; and it was enacted, in 1696, that every tenant, 
under a penalty, should procure the necessary number of 
buckets, and deduct the cost of them from the rent. The 
practice of having every house supplied with fire-buckets 
now became general, and was continued long after the 
introduction of fire-engines. If a fire broke out at night, 
the watchman gave the alarm with his rattle, and knocked 
at the doo&s of the houses, with the cry, " Throw out our 
buckets;" the alarm being further spread by the ringing 
of the bell at the Fort, and by the bells in the steeples of 
the different churches. When the inmates of a house 
were aroused, the first act was to throw out the buckets 
into the street, which were of sole-leather, holding about 
three gallons, and were always hung in the passage close 
to the door. They were picked up by those who were 



576 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

hastening to the fire, it being the general custom for nearly 
every householder to hurry to the fire, whether by day or 
by night, and render his assistance. As soon as possible, 
two lines were formed from the fire to the nearest well or 
pump ; and when that gave out, the line was carried to the 
next one, or to the river. The one line passed up the full 
buckets, and the empty ones were passed down the other. 
No one was permitted to break through these lines ; and if 
any one attempted to do so, and would not fall in, a bucket 
of water, or several, were instantly thrown over him. 
Each bucket was marked with the name or number of the 
owner ; and, when the fire was over, they were all collected 
together, and taken in a cart belonging to the City Hall. 
A city bellman then went round, to announce that they 
were ready for delivery, when each householder sent for 
his buckets, and hung them up in the allotted place, ready 
for the next emergency. 

In 1677, the city contained three hundred and sixty- 
eight houses. In 1093, the number was estimated at five 
hundred and ninety-four. In 16 96, it was put down as 
seven hundred and fifty ; and when the two fire-engines 
arrived from London, in 1731, the population of the city, 
by an enumeration made that year, was 8,628 ; and it 
must have contained 1,200 houses. Up to that time, there 
was no means for extinguishing fires except the convey- 
ing of water to it in buckets, and the use of ladders and 
fire-hooks. The buildings, however, were not very high. 
Originally, they were chiefly of one story ; and few at this 
time exceeded two — the first three-story house, which is 
still standing in Pearl Street, opposite Cedar Street, having 
been built by a member of the De Peyster family about 
the year 1690. 

It seems to us at the present day a very simple matter 
for the corporation to have ordered two fire-engines from 
London* but it was a momentous affair in 1731. In the 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 577 

first instance, an act of the provincial legislature had to 
be passed to enable the city to raise money for the term 
of three years to purchase the engines. This having been 
done, the Common Council, on the 6th of May, 1731, 
resolved to purchase, in the language of the record, " two 
complete fire-engines, with suction leather-pipes and caps, 
and all materials thereunto belonging, for the public serv- 
ice, to be the fourth and sixth series of Mr. Newsham's 
fire-engines." A committee of three aldermen was ap- 
pointed to carry out the resolution ; and they contracted 
with two merchants, Stephen Delancey and John Moore, 
then the principal mercantile firm of the city, to import 
at the rate of one hundred and twenty per cent, on the 
foot of the invoice, exclusive of commission and insur- 
ance, the money to be paid within nine months after the 
delivery ; which shows that the merchants of that day 
knew how to charge for their advances, especially when 
the city was the paymaster. 

Thomas Newsham, the person from whom the two 
engines were to be forwarded, was then one of two nail- 
makers in London, the other being a maker named Foroke. 
Each of them claimed to have surpassed all others in the 
construction of what is termed in their advertisement, 
" constantly steamed engines." Newsham, however, was 
the more successful, and vanquished his competitor. He 
had invented nothing new, for all the essential properties 
of the fire-engine had then been discovered, and the supe- 
riority of his machine consisted simply in the ingenious 
mechanical adaptation of principles already known. In 
form it resembled the machine in use when engines were 
worked by hand. Indeed, Newsham's engine, with very 
little modification, continued in use in London down to 
1832, and in this city after that period. The old engine 
which Colonel Myers has secured to be preserved in this 
city as a relic is Newsham's engine ; and in form and 

73 



578 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

structure it is in no respect different from the kind 
made by him in 1740. He made two kinds. One of this 
structure, and another called a Treddle, the treddle being 
a platform placed above the body of the machine, upon 
which twelve men could stand, six abreast, who, by tread- 
ing alternately on each side of the fulcrum of the lever, 
imparted to it the requisite ascending and descending 
motion. This treddle-engine, Newsham claimed, had 
thrown a stream of water over the Royal Exchange, in 
London, to an elevation of one hundred and sixty-five feet, 
in the presence of many thousand spectators ; and being 
the one of the greatest power, it was the kind ordered by 
the corporation of New York. 

Ewbank, a competent authority in hydraulics, says 
that Newsham was certainly mistaken ; that the height 
of the jet from his engine could not have been more than 
fifty feet ; and that Ewbank is right, is to be inferred 
from the fact, that, when Trinity Church was on fire in 
1753, the stream from the engines did not reach the 
steeple, which had ignited in several places. " We ob- 
served with universal terror," says a writer in a newspa- 
per of the day, " that the engine would scarce deliver the 
water to the top of the roof," a height of about sixty feet ; 
" and we want," says this writer, " at least one engine of 
the largest size, which will throw water one hundred and 
seventy-five feet high, discharging two hundred gallons in 
a minute, to cost about sixty-five pounds sterling ;" indi- 
cating by this passage that there were then (1753) engines 
of that power. 

The two engines arrived in December, 1731. A room 
was fitted up for them in what was then the New City 
Hall, at the corner of Nassau and Wall Streets. A com- 
mittee of two aldermen was appointed to have them 
cleaned and put in order for Use, and immediate use was 
soon found for them. A paragraph in the Boston Weekly 




SfcC\ 








t 



t. 








HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 579 

Newsletter of January 6th, 1732, gives, under the head of 
news from New York, an account of a fire which occurred 
in the city on the 7th of December preceding. It is in 
these words : " Last night, about 12 o'clock, a fire broke 
out in a joyner's house in the city. It began in the 
garret, where the people were all asleep, and burnt vio- 
lently, but by the aid of the two fire-engines, which 
came from London in the ship Beaver, the fire was extin- 
guished, after having burnt down the house and damaged 
the next." 

Some person, little apprehending that it would de- 
scend as a memorial to our day, made a rough pen-and- 
ink sketch of one of these engines, which, though rude 
and badly drawn, is sufficient to indicate its structure, 
and the manner in which it was worked. The sketch, 
having been put in the hands of a mechanical draughts- 
man, he has skillfully reproduced it in a proper draw- 
ing, which will convey an exact representation of what 
may possibly have been the first fire-engine in America. 
By the resolution of the Common Council, the engine was 
to be complete, with suction-pipe and all materials 
thereunto belonging. The suction-pipe was then known, 
and both Newsham and Foroke state in their advertise- 
ments that their engines feed themselves " with a sucking 
pipe ;" but, if we judge by this pen-and-ink sketch, these 
engines had no suction-pipe, or the use of it had been 
given up, as persons are represented in the act of passing 
buckets of water by hand to supply the engine. 

Beneath this pen-and-ink sketch is the following de- 
scription of the drawing : " This is a fair copie of ye 
ingen, arrived from London, and now in ye City Hall, 
seven feete wide on ye board and nine feete on worke- 
poole, thirteen feete long in ye whole, manned by twelve 
tug-men, eleven bucket-men, and one pipe-man." 

The experience of the fire of the 7th of December 



580 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

had doubtless pointed out the necessity of putting them 
in charge of some competent and skillful person ; and 
accordingly, on the 21st of January following, the Mayor 
and four aldermen were appointed a committe to employ 
workmen to put them in good order, and to engage per- 
sons by the year " to keep them in repair, and to work 
them when necessary." Anthony Lamb was accordingly 
appointed "overseer," or, as the office was afterward 
called, chief-engineer, at a salary of £12 a year ; and he 
and the persons employed by the year under him may 
be said to have been the first regularly organized Fire 
Department.* 

The room fitted up for these two engines in the City 
Hall would seem not to have been sufficiently commodious ; 
and accordingly, in 1736, the Corporation ordered a con- 
venient house to be built, " contiguous to the watch-house 
in Broad Street, for their security and well-keeping." 
This building, the first engine-house in the city, was in 
the middle of Broad Street, half-way between Wall Street 
and Exchange Place. The watch-house stood at the head 
of Broad Street ; and immediately behind it, in the middle 
of the street, this engine-house was built, as appears from 
an indication of it upon a map of the city in 1742, made 
by David Grim. 

Lamb held the office of chief-engineer until 1736, 
when he was succeeded by Jacob Turk, a gunsmith, who 
appears to have been an ingenious man ; for, in the year 

* Anthony Lamb was an Englishman, who had come to the city and estab- 
lished himself in business as a mathematical-instrument maker and general 
worker in wood, ivory, and brass. He kept for many years a well-known estab- 
lishment at the sign of the Quadrant and Surveying Compass, in the vicinity 
of Old Slip, where he fabricated, repaired, and sold surveying and nautical 
instruments, and many other things, and at the same time practiced as an ocu- 
list, from which combined occupation he realized a substantial fortune. He 
was the father of General Lamb, of Revolutionary memory, one of the princi- 
pal leaders in the formation of the Sons of Liberty in 1776. — Judge Daly's 
Address. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 581 

after his appointment, the city voted him £10 to enable 
him to complete a small fire-engine which he was making 
as an experiment. In this, however, it seems, he was not 
alone; for one William Lindsay advertises in the New 
York Gazette, May 9th, 1737, a fire-engine made by him, 
which, he says in his advertisement, will deliver two 
hogsheads of water, in a continuous stream, in a minute. 
The voluntary Fire Department was established in the 
city in 1738, under an act of the Colonial Legislature, and 
lasted for one hundred and twenty-seven years. A 
high compliment, and one that was, no doubt, deserved, 
was paid to the city in the preamble to this colonial 
act, in these words — " The inhabitants of the City of 
New York, of all degrees, have very justly acquired the 
reputation of being singularly and remarkably famous 
for their diligence and services in cases of fire ;" and 
it was, no doubt, this fact which led to the institution 
of the voluntary system. This act empowered the 
Corporation to appoint a certain number of freemen, or 
freeholders, not to exceed forty-two, to be selected in 
equal proportion from the six different wards of the 
city, who were to be known thereafter by the designation 
of " The Firemen of the City of New York," who, in con- 
sideration of their voluntary service, were to be exempt 
from serving as constables, surveyors, or jurors, or in the 
militia, except in case of invasion or other imminent dan- 
ger. This statute was passed in 1737, and in the follow- 
ing year the Corporation selected five firemen from each 
ward, or thirty in all, and passed an ordinance for their 
regulation, or government. The firemen, divided into 
companies, chose their own foreman, assistant, and clerk, 
from their own number. The firewardens wore a hat, the 
brim of which was black, the crown white. The city arms 
were blazoned on its front. They also carried a speaking- 
trumpet, painted white, with " Warden," in black letters. 



582 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

When a building took lire in the night, notice was imme- 
diately given by the watchmen to the members of the 
Corporation, firewardens, and bell-ringers. They also 
called out " Fire," and the inhabitants placed lighted can- 
dles in their windows to aid the engines in their passage 
through the streets. Watchmen neglecting their duties 
were liable to a fine of one hundred dollars. When a 
chimney took fire the occupant of the house was fined 
five dollars. The same fine was imposed upon carpenters 
who did not carefully remove their shavings at the end 
of every day's work. A person using a lighted lamp or 
candle in a store-house, unless secured in a lantern, for- 
feited ten dollars. Jacob Turk became the head of this 
new organization ; and that he was an efficient super- 
intendent, or chief-engineer, may be inferred from the 
fact that he continued in the office for twenty-five years. 
Among other things, he introduced the well-known leather 
cap worn by the firemen to the present day. 

Turk was succeeded in 1761 by Jacobus Stoutenbergh, 
who w r as, like Turk, a gunsmith. He was one of the 
thirty firemen originally appointed in 1738, and he con- 
tinued to be chief-engineer down to the time of the Revo- 
lution. When he was appointed, in 1761, the city had 
largely increased, and, in consequence, the force in the fol- 
lowing year (1762) was augmented to two assistants and 
sixty men. After the breaking-out of the Revolution, it 
was converted into a military organization, consisting of 
two battalions, commanded by Stoutenbergh, and was 
composed of one adjutant, one captain, five lieutenants, 
and one hundred and thirty-four men. It retired, neces- 
sarily, as a part of the military, with the retreat of the 
American army from the city in 1776 ; and the extent of 
the ravages of the dreadful conflagration which followed 
immediately after the entrance of the British troops was 
mainly owing to the want of firemen in the city. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 553 

The Fire Department was reorganized after the Revo- 
lution ; and, in 1793, the Legislature granted an act of 
incorporation by which the firemen of the city were 
" constituted and declared to be a body politic in fact and 
in the name of the Fire Department." This was the 
origin of the system nearly seventy years ago. This act 
continued until April, 1810, and was renewed from time 
to time until the Common Council appointed a " chief- 
engineer, with a salary of eight hundred dollars per 
annum," to whom was confided the sole control of this 
department. He reported twice a year to the Common 
Council the condition of the engines, buckets, houses, and 
apparatus. He also reported all fires and their accidents, 
with- the number of buildings destroyed or injured, the 
names of the sufferers, with the probable cause of the 
burning, &c. The firewardens were also appointed by 
the Common Council, but none were eligible until they 
had served as firemen five years. They acted as over- 
seers at all fires ; and, during the months of June and 
December, examined all fire-places, chimneys, stoves, 
ovens, and boilers, and, if found defective, ordered the 
owners to repair them ; and if neglected, a fine of twenty- 
five dollars was imposed. They also examined all build- 
ings ; and would often order hemp, hay, gunpowder, and 
other combustible articles to be removed to safe places, 
under a penalty of ten dollars. The Fire Department 
then consisted of twenty engines, two hook-and-ladder 
companies, twenty-two foremen, thirteen assistants, and 
three hundred and eighteen men ; and, in 1825, Mr. Cox, 
the chief-engineer, reported forty-two engines in good 
order, five hook-and-ladder trucks, and one hose-wagon, 
with 10,256 feet of good hose : also, two hundred and 
fifty-five buckets, and twenty-eight ladders and thirty 
hooks. The total number of men belonging to the Fire 
Department was 1,347. 



584 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

The voluntary system was, upon its introduction, a 
most desirable one, and continued to be so for more than 
three quarters of a century. For alacrity, intrepidity, 
skill, and courage, the men who composed it would com- 
pare with any body of firemen in the world. At its insti- 
tution and for many years it consisted almost exclusively 
of the most influential and prominent citizens, who dis- 
charged their arduous labors at a great sacrifice of time, 
and frequently of health, from a high sense of public duty ; 
and the example they set infused into the whole commu- 
nity a zeal and willingness to lend their aid and assistance 
upon the breaking-out of a fire, almost without precedent 
in the history of cities. The effect upon the rising genera- 
tion was especially marked, and the young were made to 
feel that to be a fireman was an honorable and enviable 
distinction. For a long while, "No. 5," on Fulton Street, 
and " 14," near St. Paul's Church, were considered the 
" crack companies " of the city, — the first to reach a fire 
and among the last to leave it; and many a race they 
had. But in course of time this was changed, and the 
effect of the institution upon the young was as injurious 
as it had been formerly beneficial. The body grew large 
and formidable. It became a power, and resisted for 
many years every attempt to introduce new and im- 
proved methods for the extinguishment of fires. Steam 
fire-engines were introduced in London in 1832, with 
a marked increase of efficiency and economy ; but it 
took nearly thirty years before they could be introduced 
in New York. Horses had long been used in London to 
transport the engines more quickly ; but the voluntary fire- 
men of New York persisted in the habit of dragging their 
engines to the fire by hand to the last, thereby diminish- 
ing their alacrity and lessening their physical strength. 
When the city was embraced within moderate limits, the 
occasional duty of acting as a fireman was not a very 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK OITT. 585 

onerous one ; but, when the city was expanded miles in 
extent, it exacted an amount of time which few were able 
to give who had their own business to attend to ; and, con- 
sequently, this class was gradually withdrawn from the 
department, which was filled by those who could give 
more time to it. The increasing extension of the city 
demanded, moreover, a constant augmentation of the force 
of the department; and, as it increased in numbers, it 
degenerated in quality. The engine-houses became loiter- 
ing-places for the idle and the young, and at which the 
latter learned little except to become rude in speech and 
imperious in manner. Thus was brought forth and foster- 
ed a character very closely resembling the gamin of Paris, 
familiarly known as the " b'hoy," who seems now to be 
disappearing with the causes that produced him. The 
rivalry between companies engendered animosities ; and 
street brawls among the firemen at a fire, occasionally 
expanding into street riots, in which free use was made of 
the brickbat and the paving-stone, were not of unusual 
occurrence until the system had reached the point when 
grave men propounded the inquiry of how to get rid of it. 
The remedy was found in substituting for it a body of 
picked men, permanently engaged and regularly paid for 
their services, and by the general introduction of steam 
fire-engines, or, as they are called, " steamers." This was 
effected in 1865, by the creation and chartering by 
the Legislature of the present Metropolitan Fire 
Department, with Charles E. Pinckney president, and that 
fine old fireman, Philip W. Engs, treasurer. The conse- 
quence of it has been increased efficiency in the extin- 
guishment of fires, a large diminution in the number of 
men requisite for that purpose, and an entire cessation of 
the demoralizing influences to which reference has been 
already made. In 1863, the voluntary department con- 
sisted of 4,122 men. The present department (1871) 

74 



5S6 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

consists of 599 men, or about one seventh of the former 
force. 

The new act allows twelve steam fire-engines and 
hook-and-ladder companies, — the engines to have one 
foreman, one assistant, an engineer, stoker, driver, 
with seven firemen. Of the hook-and-ladders, each one 
has a foreman, one assistant, a driver, and nine firemen. 
Their pay is fixed at $3,000 per annum to the chief- 
engineer ; assistant, $2,000 ; district engineer, $1,500 ; 
foreman, $1,100 ; assistant, $900 ; engineer of steam- 
engine, $1,080; stokers, drivers, and firemen, $840 each, 
superintendent of telegraph, $1,800; telegraph-operators, 
$1,000 each; battery boy, $500 ; line-man, $1,000; and 
bell-ringers, each $800. The department are uniformed, 
and the number of their engines has increased to fifty- 
six, and the hook-and-ladders to twenty-five. 

How different the Fire Department now from the one 
of former years, when men were the horses to drag the 
ropes of the machine, and their strong arms the motive 
power to work them ! Now we have in their places horses 
to pull the engines, and the mighty giant, steam, to force 
the water upon the raging fiery element. Still, the little 
old-fashioned hand fire-engines did wonderful service in 
their day ; and, indeed, the noble bearing, bravery, endur- 
ance, and success of our New York firemen had a world- 
wide fame.* 

* In Appendix No. VIII. will be found an interesting letter from Colonel T. 
Bailey Myers to the author, giving an account of the Firemen's Lyceum, organ 
ized by him, as Trustee, for the use of the Department, and as a means for the 
improvement of the men. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Previous to the year 1802 no special effort had been 
made to establish an institution for art in the city. In that 
year, however, the idea of a " New York Academy 
of Fine Arts" was first mooted, which, 1 in 1808, cul- 
minated in one being chartered under the name of the 
" American Academy of Arts ;" Robert R. Livingston, 
president ; John Trumbull, vice-president ; and De Witt 
Clinton, secretary — Trumbull being the only artist. " The 
first exhibition was held in Greenwich Street, near Morris, 
in a building formerly used as a circus. In 1825, an asso- 
ciation was formed by the artists of the city under the 
name of the New York Drawing Association, which was 
afterward organized under the name of the National 
Academy of the Arts of Design, with S. F. B. Morse as 
the first president. The first public exhibition of the new 
Academy took place in May, 1826, in the house on the 
south-west corner of Broadway and Reade Street. The 
room in which the first exhibition was held was in the 
second story, and was lighted with gas — six burners in all 
for the whole exhibition — which consisted of one hundred 
and seventy pictures." * Let the reader contrast these 
humble beginnings with the present delightful receptions, 

* Mary L. Booth. 

For a detailed history of the National Academy of Design from the finished 
pen of T. Addison Richards, see Appendix No. X. 



588 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 



which are attended by all of the wit, culture, and beauty 
of the city, and which are held in the elegant building on 
the north-west corner of Fourth Avenue and Twenty-third 
Street. 




NATIONAL ACADEMY OF DESIGN. 



The building itself has a front of eighty feet on Twenty- 
third Street, and of ninety-eight feet and nine inches on 
Fourth Avenue. "The main entrance is on the former 
front, level with the second story, and reached by a double 
flight of steps. This second and principal story is thus 
divided : A wide hall extends from the entrance nearly 
the whole length of the building. In this are the stairs 
leading to the third story. To the right hand, on enter- 
ing, is a range of four large rooms, which occupy all of the 
Fourth Avenue side. These rooms are lighted by the eight 
windows shown in the engraving — forming an arcade 
which extends from the entire depth of the longer faqade 
— and by the three windows of similar design on Twenty- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 589 

third Street. The grand staircase leading to the upper 
galleries is a feature of the building. They are wide, 
massive, and imposing in effect. Exhibition galleries 
occupy the whole of the third story, which is lighted from 
the roof. The interior of the building has been hand- 
somely fitted up at great expense. Most of the woodwork 
is of oak, walnut, ash, and other hard woods, oiled and 
polished, so as to show the natural color and grain. 
The rooms of the second floor, .except the lecture-room, 
are finished like the parlors of a first-class house. Each 
of the four large rooms on Fourth Avenue has an open 
fire-place, with a hearth of ornamental encaustic tiles, and 
rich mantel-piece of oak. The windows are fitted with 
plate-glass sliding sashes, and the rooms communicate 
through a series of plate-glass sliding-doors. The vesti- 
bule at the main entrance has an ornamental pavement 
of variegated marbles, and the floor of the great hall is 
walnut and maple in patterns. The design of the exterior 
was copied from a famous palace in Venice ; and, being 
the only instance of this style of architecture in the city, 
or we believe in the country, it possesses a peculiar in- 
terest. It is one of the most brilliantly decorated edifices 
in the country. The double flight of steps leading to the 
main entrance — rendered necessary by the circumscribed 
limits of the lot on which the building stands — has been 
skillfully made an ornament rather than a defect. It is 
beautifully carved, and underneath it is an elegant drink- 
ing fountain, radiant in color and other exquisite embel- 
lishments. The walls of the lower story are of gray 
marble, marked with intervening lines of North River 
blue-stone, and the entire elevation is thus variegated in 
blue and gray and white. The cost of the building was 
one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars." * 

* New York Illustrated. 



590 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

In August, 1865, the Old Warren Mansion was torn 
down, its beautiful lawns covered with brick, and its 
massive locusts cut up and given to the winds.* This 
mansion, which stood near the intersection of 
Charles and Bleecker Streets, was built by Sir Peter 
Warren about 1740. Although, when demolished, in the 
heart of the city, yet at that time it stood in the open 
country with its lawns reaching down to the North River 
— long before even the first cottage had been built in the 
village of Greenwich. It is indeed safe to say that around 
no other house did there cluster so many associations 
which to New Yorkers should be especially dear. Admi- 
ral, afterward Sir Peter Warren, K. B., the hero of Lewis- 
burg, is scarcely known to the present generation ; and 
yet aside from his being so long identified with the naval 
glory of England, he was in our colonial history the great 
man of an era, and at one time, during the administration 
of Clinton, exercised more influence in the Colonial Gov- 
ernment than even the Governor himself. At that time, 
when the extreme limit of our city was Wall Street, the 
house No. 1 Broadway, by the Bowling Green — now the 
Washington Hotel — was built by Sir Peter as his town 
house, in distinction from his country seat — the house of 
which we are now speaking. In 1748, when the small- 
pox was raging in this city, the Colonial Assembly, to 
get out of reach of the contagion, accepted Sir Peter's 
tender of his country seat and adjourned thither to escape 
the plague by being in the country! It indeed seemed 



* Other landmarks, it is true, had previously been demolished. The Old 
Brick Church, erected in 1768 on the triangular piece of ground Detween 
Park Row, Beekman, and Nassau Streets, and used in the Revolution, first as 
a prison and then as a hospital for prisoners, had given place, in 1856, to the 
" Times Building," and the Atlantic Garden, formerly " Burns' Coffee 
House," and the " Faneuil Hall "■ of New York, had been also purchased and 
destroyed by the Hudson River Railroad Company ; but neither of these ever 
possessed the personal reminiscences of the Old Warren Mansion. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



591 



really cruel to cut down those ancient trees, planted by 
the Admiral's own hand. A tree, like a tooth, is very 
easily removed, but is a long time in growing; and it is 
thus that a Spanish peasant feels whe n, with^ religious 




THE OLD BRICK CHURCH. 



feeling, he stoops down by the wayside and plants the pit 
or seed of the fruit which he has been eating. It were 
to be wished that Americans had more veneration for the 
ancient traditions of their own country and for the ves- 



592 HISTORY OP NEW YORK CITY. 

tiges of the past. A few individuals occasionally have 
this feeling, and in a large measure ; but as a nation we 
have no love for the past, and hence old landmarks, preg- 
nant with hallowed associations, are continually being 
removed to make room for " modern improvements," until 
it is to be feared that soon oral tradition will be all that 
will be left to inform the rising generation of what once 
was. It is true that more attention is now paid to our 
past history than formerly by historical societies ; but 
they are powerless in very many instances to arrest the 
hand of vandalism. The practice of the old country in 
this respect is far different. An old abbey or castle, or 
even an old tavern, is guarded with zealous care ; the 
government — if private liberality is in fault — pays out 
large sums to keep them intact ; and the people, even the 
lowest, feel a personal interest in the preservation of some 
relic which their village may perchance boast of. Es- 
pecially is this difference in feeling between the old world 
and the new seen in the care with which all the memen- 
toes of a battle-field are preserved. In Germany, for 
example, while the most ignorant peasant residing in the 
vicinity of any of the battle-fields of the thirty years' 
war will tell you accurately and truthfully where this and 
that point of interest is; where the battle raged the hot- 
test and where the turning point was reached ; a well-to- 
do farmer in America, residing on the battle-field itself, 
will be unable to point out a single place of interest — and 
he will do very well if he knows that there was a battle 
fought on his farm at all. Even at this very time two 
farmers, living in the vicinity of the scene of the famous 
battle of Saratoga, are busily advocating their claims to 
living upon the particular spot upon which the famous 
charge of the British Highlanders was made — and yet 
the farms lie a mile distant from each other ! Chancing, 
moreover, to visit, a year or two since, the ruins of Fort 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 593 

Ticonderoga, on Lake Champlain, the writer was pained 
to find that the farmers in the vicinity had for several 
years past been in the habit of pulling down the ruins 
and drawing them off for the purpose of building fences. 
But it is not too late to prevent the removal of the few 
old landmarks that yet remain among us. In the densely 
settled parts of the city where they stand there is great 
need of breathing-places, and why, therefore, cannot our 
city government buy the spots and let them remain as 
little parks ? The public certainly would feel much better 
satisfied with this expenditure of the public funds by the 
City Council than voting silver services or costly badges. 
In the same spirit of vandalism the crumbling remains 
of those who — some of them for nearly a century — had 
slept beneath the tower of the Old North Dutch Church,* 

* This edifice, standing at the north-west corner of Fulton and William 
Streets, New York, is one of the antiquities of the city, being now over a 
century old. In 1767 the two churches then used by the Protestant Reformed 
Dutch Church (since known as the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church) were 
found insufficient to accommodate the increasing congregations, and the Con- 
sistory decided to erect a third place of worship. They resolved that " the 
church should be erected on the grounds of Mr. Harpending ; that it should 
be one hundred feet in length and seventy in breadth; that it should front 
Horse and Cart Lane, and be placed in the middle of the lot." The grounds 
thus referred to,were given by John Harpending, an influential member of the 
church, who had died at an advanced age in 1722. His coat of arms can still 
be seen suspended over the pulpit ; it has on it implements belonging to the 
currying business, his trade having been that of a tanner and currier. The 
motto which it bears, " Dando Conservat," is significant of the spirit which 
actuated the donor in the distribution of his wealth. The part of William 
Street on which this church stands was then called " Horse and Cart Lane," 
from a tavern near by, which had for a sign the picture of a horse and cart. 

The corner-stone of the North Dutch Church was laid July 2d, 1767, by 
Isaac Roosevelt, one of its elders, and the dedication was preached by the Rev. 
Dr. Laidlie, on the 25th of May, 1769. The cost of the building was £12,000. 

The main walls are constructed of uncut stone, stuccoed and painted. The 
door and window dressings and molding are of freestone, now badly damaged 
by the rough usage through which the building has passed. On the columns 
in the interior of the church can be seen the initials of the generous contrib- 
utors toward the erection of the church. The original pulpit was removed 
during the Revolution by the British. Some time after the war an American 
gentleman, attending service in a country church in England, was astonished 
75 



594 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

were removed in 18G6 to Greenwood Cemetery. In the 
majority of cases, however, the silver plates once attached 
to the coffins (mingled with fine dust) were the only 
remains. The dust was separated as carefully 
as possible, placed in boxes, and conveyed to Green- 
wood. Still, in the chaotic state in which the ashes of 
the dead lay complete accuracy was impossible ; and per- 
haps the dust of persons who, while on earth, cherished 
bitter animosity toward each other, is destined hereafter 
to repose in the closest commingling in the same casket. 

The Consistory at the time expressed the intention 
(which has since been carried out) to dispose of only a 
part of the land upon which the building stands ; and 
should that edifice be torn down, they wish the community 
to be assured that it is their present intention to erect on 
part of its site a spacious and elegant chapel, in which 
preaching will be continued each Sabbath, and the regular 
noon prayer-meeting upon every day of the week — so 
long as they have control. 

Thus much to explain the intentions of the Consistory. 
We add our unqualified condemnation of the movement. 
It is a disgrace to the age and to the city that old church- 
yards are thus invaded by the demands of commerce, and 
the repose of the dead violated, because the city has 
grown. Old grave-yards ought to be venerated as holy 
ground. Men should no more consent to such changes 
than they would consent to sell the bones of their own 
fathers and mothers for knife-handles. If the church is 
deserted and congregations cannot be maintained, then let 

to recognize in it the pulpit of the North Dutch Church. During the Revolu- 
tion this church was used as a place for storage, and as a hospital hy the Eng- 
lish. It was also used hy the latter as a prison, and at one time contained 
eight hundred American prisoners. The lower part was stripped of the pews, 
pulpit, etc., and the marks of ill-usage can still be seen on the pillars. The 
engraving shows the church as it appeared before its wooden steeple was 
destroyed by fire, which occurred about two years ago. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



595 



it stand as a memorial, or in its place build a durable 
monument to the old and good men of New York who 
sleep beneath it. But let them sleep! Our condemnation 
applies to all the removals of down-town churches and 





¥ 






OLD XOKTII DUTCH CHURCH. 



church-yards which have taken place or are now going 
forward. There is no excuse for it, nor any palliation of 
the offense against propriety. If the Consistory intend 
to build a chapel in place of the North Dutch Church, let 



596 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 



them build it; but let uot a spade-fall of the dust of the 
fathers be sold for gold. 

In the spring of 1867 the Stuyvesant Pear-Tree, then 




THE STUYVESANT TEAR-TREE 



in its two hundred and twentieth year, put forth 
,867 ' blossoms for the last time. This tree was planted 
on Governor Stuyvesant's farm in 1647, and stood at the 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 597 

corner of Third Avenue and Thirteenth Street, where it 
was cherished by all familiar with its history as the last 
visible link which connected the present generation di- 
rectly with the time of the Dutch dynasty.* 

In 1868 the widening of the Bloomingdale road into 
the new Boulevard, by the Park Commissioners, caused 
the removal of still another venerable landmark. 

1 868. 

This was an old house on Broadway, between 
Seventy-fifth and Seventy-sixth Streets, which possessed 
greater historical interest than was generally known even 
to those living in its immediate vicinity. It was here 
that Louis Philippe, of France, taught school during his 
residence in America, and the room in which his classes 
were held remained until the building was torn down, in 
nearly the same condition as during his occupancy of it. 
This quaint old house was erected some time previous to 
the Be volution, although no accurate record of its age 
can be found. The original deed of transfer was executed 
in 1796, but the house is known to have been considera- 
bly older than this, as it was standing several years pre- 
vious to the sale of the farm. 

It was a low two-story frame house with brick ends, 
covering a space fifty by eighty feet square, substantially 
built and habitable, though it had not been occupied for 
the past thirteen years. A steep, sloping, shingle roof 
extended from the eaves of the porch in front to the 
extreme rear kitchen, with dormer windows to light the 
upper rooms. In the interior, on either side of the central 
hall, were parlors and sitting-rooms, with low ceilings and 
narrow doorways. The wood-work in the rooms was fin- 
ished with an elaborate care not seen in the houses of this 
class at the present day. There were corner cupboards with 



* Since the fall of the tree, however, a promising 1 shoot from the ancient 
stock has taken its place, and shows a hardy vigor which may yet enable it to 
rival its progenitor in age. 



598 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

carved and paneled doors, quaintly ornamented window 
casings, immense fire-places, surbases finished with a pro- 
fusion of molding, and doors that seemed to have been 
put together like a Chinese puzzle. The stairs were narrow 
and steep, turning squarely at each platform, instead of 
winding, as in more modern houses. Around the fire- 
place in the school-room of the exiled King was a row of 
blue and white Antwerp tiles, ornamented with pictures 
from the New Testament, with the chapter and verse to 
which they referred indicated in large characters beneath. 
These were probably the last that remained in New York 
of the historical Dutch tiles that were once so fashionable. 
This venerable mansion, which was probably the oldest 
in the city, was formerly the homestead of the Somerin- 
dike family, who once owned nearly all the surrounding 
part of the island not included in the extensive Harsen 
estate. 

The beginning of 1869 was marked by the occurrence 
of five separate events. These are, first, the removal of 
yet another landmark — the old New York Hospi- 
tal ; * second, the blotting out of the beautiful St. 
John's Park, by the erection of the huge and unsightly 

* The New York Hospital was founded, as stated in a former chapter, in 
1770, during the administration of Governor Dunmore, and was then a mile in 
the open country. It is a question whether the authorities of New York, in 
consenting to the removal, have not made a very serious mistake ; and also, 
whether the number of elegant iron stores erected on its site at all compensate 
for its loss. Aside from any sentimental reasons why it should have been 
allowed to remain, there is one which should have been conclusive against it, 
viz. : that the lower part of the city is thus left destitute of any place to which 
injured persons can be brought for relief. Situated, as it was, in the most 
bustling portion of the city, this Hospital received more casual patients than 
any other. Women and children run over in the press of the street ; laborers 
injured while employed in the new buildings constantly going up in the vicin- 
ity ; warehouse porters bruised or sprained while handling packages and casks ; 
— all invariably found in it a comfortable asylum, aud received the best of 
medical and surgical attendance. Now, however, the nearest hospital is Belle- 
vue, more than three miles distant from the Battery — a long way to carry a 
patient prostrated, it may be, with sun-stroke or broken bones. We do not 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 



599 



freight depot of the Hudson River Railroad ; third, the 
extension of Church Street from Fulton to Morris Streets, 
and the opening of Pearl Street through the Hospital 
grounds ; fourth, the tearing down of numerous old and 
dilapidated buildings, and the erection in their places of 
costly and imposing business and private structures ; and 




HUDSON RIVER RAILROAD FREIGHT DEPOT. 

fifth, the removal of the courts and civil offices from the 
City Hall to the New Court House. 

The extension of Church Street removes many objec- 
tionable places, breaks up a number of dens of iniquity, 
and puts in their stead some really fine structures. 
Directly in the rear of Trinity Church the « tumble- 



know how efficient police-surgeons may be as a rule, but we do know that in 
soml nstances they live miles away from the precinct to winch they a r 
Ta bed and if, as it is said, the station houses are unproved wHhm^cal 
3u«* a physician, called in hurriedly in an imminent and deadly ens*, 
may find his best efforts frustrated for want of proper means. 



600 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

down" " rookeries," which formerly stood in that vicinity, 
have given place to a block of nine elegant stores. The 
entire building, which is built of iron, painted white, is six 
stories in height and tastefully ornamented. The north 
end, fronting on Trinity Place, is occupied by the United 
States Government as a bonded warehouse — while the 
other stores, which are mostly occupied by shipping mer- 
chants, will compare favorably with any of similar char- 
acter in New York. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Architecture is one of the crowning glories of a city , 
and nothing more strongly indicates the cultivation of a 
people than refinement in this beautiful depart- 
ment of science. " Order is the first law of nature," 
and the utter disregard hitherto paid to all established 
orders of architecture in this country is one reason, prob- 
ably, that we have become such a disorderly people ! The 
taste of the Greeks in the arts has contributed more to 
their glory than their deeds of arms. The chisel of 
Phidias carved for him a name of more true renown than 
the sword did for Alexander; and the name of Sir Christo- 
pher Wren will live as long in English history as that of 
the Duke of Wellington. Every patriotic Gothamite, 
therefore, should rejoice at each successive improvement 
in architectural taste among us. 

In this respect the present year, as hinted at toward 
the close of the last chapter, marks an era in the history 
of the city. There is not space to speak in detail of each 
of the new buildings which were finished or were building 
during this year — among the latter of which may be men- 
tioned the Grand Central Depot, opened in 1871, and the 
new Post-office, not }^et completed.* Great changes were 

* This structure, now (1872) building at the southern end of the City Hall 
Park, will, when completed, add another to the many magnificent structures 
which adorn the city. It is to be built of granite, marble, and iron, at a cost of 
$3,500,000, which amount has been appropriated by Congress. 

The style of architecture is the pure French Renaissance. It will be three 
76 



602 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

noticeable throughout the city, but especially so along the 
line of Broadway. This great thoroughfare will ever be 
improving ; and property owners will not be satisfied until 
its entire length presents an even and unbroken front of 
brown stone or marble. Passing by the many structures 
erected in 1867 and 1868, such as the Park and other 
banks,* the Herald Building and others, the following 
buildings are successively reached, viz.: the Merchants' 

stories high, surmounted by a Mansard roof, marked by a center pavilion four 
stories in height. The pavilion in front will be 100 feet high, and the build- 
ing facing the City Hall will be 320 feet in length. The first story will be 22 
feet high, composed of arched openings, supported upon square piers ; the 
second will be 18 feet high, and the third, 16 feet. The style of the building 
is that of the Tuileries and the Hotel de Ville. The building will display the 
following statues: America, Commerce, Industry, Washington, Franklin, Jus- 
tice, History, Peace, Strength, Truth, Genius of the Arts, Virtue, Honor, Litera- 
ture, Mechanics, Genius of Science, Agriculture, and Navigation. The public 
corridor will be 25 feet wide and 600 feet in length, with entrances from Broad- 
way and Park Row. The building can be completed, it is claimed, in two 
years. Clocks are to be placed at various points around the building for the 
accommodation of the public. 

In his annual report (January, 1872) Mr. Mullett, the architect, speaks of it 
as follows : 

" The progress of work has been not only gratifying, but its cost has been 
kept within the amount of the estimates. The first story is now nearly com- 
pleted. An idea of the immense amount of work that has been done may be 
formed from the following statement of materials used and labor expended to 
the present time, viz. : 2,476,960 bricks ; 15,701 barrels cement ; 144,087 feet 
cube granite ; 2,689 yards rubble masonry ; 5,206,442 pounds of wrought and 
cast iron ; and the magnitude of the undertaking, from the fact that there are 
now engaged at Dix Island 1,002 persons in the preparation of the granite 
alone, of whom 704 are employed in cutting the granite for the Government, 
and 298 in quarrying the stock and otherwise for the contractors. Three hun- 
dred and twenty-seven thousand one hundred and sixty-nine and one-half days' 
labor have already been expended in cutting and boxing the granite after it 
has been quarried ; and it is estimated that three hundred thousand days' labor 
will be required to complete that branch of the work alone." 

* The more prominent banks of New York include the Bank of New York, 
corner of Wall and William Streets, the Mechanics' Bank, the Merchants' 
Bank, the Manhattan, the Bank of Commerce, Nassau Bank, &c. The banks 
of New York are daily becoming more important in an architectural point of 
view. 

The American Exchange Bank, 128 Broadway, corner of Liberty Street, is a 
splendid building of Caen stone. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. gQ3 

Exchange Bank, a few doors south of Warren Street ; the 
elegant stores on the grounds of the old New York Hospi- 
tal ; the Ninth National Bank Building, between Walker 
and Lispenard Streets ; the large iron building on the site 
of the well known Costar property, which has a frontage 
of seventy-five feet on Broadway, and extends back two 
hundred feet to Mercer Street; and the iron store of A. 
T. Stewart, occupying an entire block, until, in Union 
Square, we come to two fine iron buildings on the former 
site of Dr. Cheever's Church. But perhaps the two most 
costly buildings which deserve especially to be noticed are 
those of the Equitable Assurance Company and the New 
York Insurance Company. The building of the former 
Company, at the corner of Broadway and Cedar Street, is 
probably the strongest and most solid structure in the 
United States. The building is of Coiicord granite, and 

The Bank of Commerce, in Nassau Street, facing the Post-office, is one of 
the finest marble edifices in the city. Its capital is $10,000,000. 

Duncan, Sherman & Co.'s Banking House is built of brown stone, and stands 
on the corner of Nassau and Pine Streets ; it cost $150,000. Adjoining this is 
another splendid establishment — the Continental Bank. 

The Bank of the Republic is situated at the corner of Broadway and Wall 
Street ; it is a noble edifice, built of brown stone ; its entire cost is estimated 
at about $175,000. Its capital is $3,000,000. 

The Metropolitan is also built of brown stone, and is located at the corner 
of Pine Street and Broadway ; its cost is stated at $100,000. 

The Bank of the Commonwealth, 15 Nassau Street, is a beautiful brown 
stone structure of elegant proportions. 

The Bank of America is one of the old established banks, situated 40 Wall 
Street. Its capital is $3,000,000. 

On the corner of Wall and William Streets is another fine edifice, the Bank 
of New York, recently built with brick and brown stone facings. Its capital is 
$2,000,000. 

The Bank of North America, 44 Wall Street, lias a capital of $1,000,000. 

Broadway Bank, corner of Broadway and Park Place, is a massive brown 
stone building; its cost is stated at $127,000. 

The Park Bank, 214 and 217 Broadway, is a recent establishment, with a 
capital of $2,000,000. 

The Pkenix Bank. 45 Wall Street. 

The Shoe and Leather Bank, corner of Broadway and Chambers Street, has 
a capital of $1,000,000. 

The Union Bank, 34 Wall Street, has a capital of $1,500,000. 



604 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY, 



the successive stories are in the doric and composite 
orders, surmounted by a balustrade, dormer windows, and 
a double-pitched French roof. The elevation of the build- 
ing is one hundred and twenty-five feet from the side- 
walk, and it is readily discerned above all other houses 
in approaching the city from the ocean. Over the main 
entrance is placed an allegorical group, representing the 
Guardian Angel of Life Insurance stretching an arm of 
protection over the widow and fatherless. The cost of 
the structure was one million five hundred thousand 
dollars. 




EQUITABLE BUILDINOr. 

The New York Insurance Company's building, on the 
corner of Broadway and Leonard — the site formerly occu- 
pied by Appleton & Co., and more recently by S. B. Chit- 
tenden & Co., until the latter were burned out — is also an 
ornament to the city, and cost, exclusive of the ground, 
one million of dollars. It is in many respects like the 
Equitable ; but though very strongly built, it lacks that 
massiveness that is apparent in the walls and solid stone 
pillars of the other. 

White Street has also been built up rapidly, and so 
valuable has it become that lots now sell readily for $50,- 
000 to $60,000 each ; and it would scarcely be credited— 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 605 

at least by a Rip Van Winkle — that three hundred feet 
nearer Broadway will make an average difference of 
$6,000 or $7,000. A very fine building was erected on 
this street the present year, intended for the straw-goods 
trade, at a cost of $50,000 for the building and $55,000 
for the lot, It is chiefly of iron, and measures 25x100 
feet,* 

In this connection it will be interesting to quote an 
article which appeared in the Historical Magazine for Feb- 
ruary, 1868 : 

" Broadway, Past and Present. — We have received a communication 
which gives some interesting facts concerning the territory of Broadway. Our 
correspondent, who lived in New York in 1800, pays : 

' It occurred to me a few days since, when I noticed in your columns the 
advertisement of sale at auction, by E. H. Ludlow, of the plot of ground on 
the corner of Broadway aud Canal Street, that it might interest some of your 
young readers, and those who have, within the past ten years, made our city 
their residence, to learn a few facts about the early territory of Broadway. 
The above plot, which the owners, I am told, have refused to sell for four hun- 
dred thousand dollars, I know was purchased by John Jay, the grandfather of 
the present owners, for the sum of one thousand dollars, and had he or bis 
son William lived a century beyond this they would never have sold it. In 
their day they never believed in selling real estate ; so it was with the late 
owner of the corner of Broadway and Chambers Street, Benjamin Stevens. He 
purchased that lot for one thousand dollars. The corner of Broadway and 
Broome Street was bought by a barber for five hundred dollars, and remained 
in the hands of his heirs until within a few years. The Jay lot above referred 
to is held under lease by Patrick Dickie, at a rent of two thousand dollars per 
annum, and for which he receives from the occupants about sixty thousand dol • 

* In order to show the immense percentage paid on investments made in 
real estate, we give an authentic table of the value of a few of the buildings 
referred to in the text, and the rents that are expected for them by their 
owners : 

Buildings. Cost. Rent Expected. 

Marble Store $50,000 .... $13,000 

Iron Store 95,000 .... 25,000 

Factory 45,000 .... 10,000 

Store, Iron 110,000 .... 28,000 

Store 70,000 .... 18,000 

Store 70,000 .... 16,000 

Store 125,000 .... 35,000 

By which it appears that the rental averages a little more than twenty-five 
per cent, on the outlay. 



606 HISTORY OP NEW YORK CITY. 

lars. It may not be generally known that the site where Stewart's store 
stands, on Broadway and Reade Street, was formerly occupied by a hotel 
known as Washington Hall, and that it was so far from the business center of 
the city that country merchants would not go out to it, and every one failed 
who kept the hotel. The lot owned by Gemmel, the watchmaker, on the cor- 
ner of Broadway and Duane Street, was sold in 1812 for fifteen hundred dollars 
down. It was the first house built in the city with an under cellar. About 
fifteen years since, when walking up Broadway with one of our old Irish resi- 
dents, he mentioned that he had seen lots sold since his arrival in New York, 
on Broadway, for one thousand dollars, which were then worth about seven thou- 
sand. He lamented his neglect in not availing himself of the chances of making 
a fortune in Broadway property, which he had suffered to pass. The same lots 
to-day are worth one hundred thousand dollars ; yet I am told by those who 
know, that lots in London, situated with equal business advantages to lots on 
Broadway, in the most favorable locations, are worth in London quite double 
the present value on Broadway. All owners of Broadway property should 
bear in mind that there is but one Broadway in the world, and they have only 
to learn themselves, and to teach their heirs, to wait ; and while waiting they 
will get a large interest upon present values, and in twenty years from to-day 
the values will be double ; and it is more than probable they will be increased 
to more than three times the present prices they are selling at.' " 

The following account of an auction sale, held the 11th 
of January 1872, and clipped from the New York Tribune, is 
also in point : 

" A large attendance of wealthy real estate owners attended the sale con- 
ducted by Messrs. Muller, Wilkins & Co., under direction of the executors of 
the late Daniel Devlin. The property comprises four first-class marble stores 
and lots on the north side of Canal Street. 227 feet east of Broadway, known 
as Xos. 2G1, 263, 265 and 267 Canal Street, and two five story stores and lots on 
the South side of Howard Street, connecting with the Canal Street property — 
lot on Canal Street 100 x 110, lot on Howard Street 49.8 x 100. By direction of 
Mr. Devlin's will the property was sold at auction. The executors offered the 
whole in one lot, and, after languid bidding by a few prominent capitalists, it 
was sold to Mr. E. S. Higgins for $363,000. The stores are now rented, on a 
lease expiring May 1st, for $55,000, and are sublet for $72,000. 

" Adrian H. Muller sold, by order of the Supreme Court, under direction of 
W. W. Goodrich, referee, one-third interest in the two blocks of ground on the 
north side of Sixty-first Street, and commencing at Eighth Avenue. The 
property was struck off at $65,000, and was purchased by the parties in interest. 

" Messrs. Arnold, Constable & Co. have recently purchased two lots on the 
north-east corner of Eighty-third Street and Fifth Avenue for $95,000, paying 
$55,000 for the corner lot and $40,000 for the one adjoining." 

Before closing the record of this year allusion should 
be made to the elegant buildings of the Young Men's 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 607 

Christian Association, Booth's Theater, and the Grand 
Opera-house. 

The Young Men's Christian Association of New York 
City was organized July, 1852, and incorporated April, 
1860, for the " Improvement of the Spiritual, Mental, 
Social, and Physical Condition of Young Men." The 
Association seeks to accomplish the purposes of its organ- 
ization by the employment of the following agencies, 
namely : Free Reading-Rooms, a Free Circulating and a 
Free Reference Library, Sunday Evening Sermons, Free 
Lectures at Rooms, Prayer Meetings, Bible Classes, Social 
and Musical Meetings, Readings, a Literary Society, and 
a Musical Society; by aiding in the selection of good 
boarding-places; by obtaining, as for as possible, situations 
for those who are out of employment ; by visiting and 
relieving those who are sick and in want ; by introducing 
strangers to fit persons for friends and acquaintances, and 
to suitable church connections ; and by the use of every 
other means in harmony with the name it bears, that may 
tend to cheer, aid, and guide young men, especially such 
as come from country homes or foreign lands.* 

It was soon found, however, that the general rooms 
of the Association, which were situated at 161 Fifth 
Avenue, were entirely too small to accommodate the con- 
stantly increasing influx of young men. Accordingly, in 
1868, a very valuable plot of land on the south-west cor- 
ner of Fourth Avenue and Twenty-third Street was pur- 
chased, at a cost of one hundred and forty-two thousand 
dollars, for the erection of a building worthy of the work 
to which the Association had devoted its energies. The 

* " Hundreds of young men," writes Mr. MeBurney, the Secretary, to the 
writer, " from all parts of our own land, as well as from Europe, come to us 
for advice on temporal and spiritual things. We are careful not to make pub- 
lic the cases which come under our notice, so that young men may come to us 
with full confidence when in difficulty. Many who have been thus quietly 
helped are now holding prominent positions in the city." 



608 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



vigor and good judgment with which the Association con- 
ducted its work gave to it the full confidence of the very 
best men in the city (its real estate is held by a Board of 
Trustees, composed of such men as Stewart Brown, 




Robert L. Stuart, James Stokes, Charles C. Colgate, Robert 
Lenox Kennedy, Jonathan Sturges, and others), and the 
result was that in the summer of this year the building 




BOOTHS THEATRE. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 609 

was completed and thoroughly furnished at a cost of 
about three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The 
building itself stands directly opposite the Academy of 
Design, on the south-west corner of Fourth Avenue and 
Twenty-third Street. It is acknowledged to be one of 
the finest specimens of the Renaissance order of archi- 
tecture in the city. The roof is of the steep Mansard 
pattern, presenting towers of equal height at each corner 
of the building, and a larger tower (windowed) over the 
entrance (on Twenty-third Street), which is simple and 
elegant. The dimensions of the building are one hundred 
and seventy-five feet on Twenty-third Street, eighty- 
three feet on Fourth Avenue, and ninety-seven feet at the 
rear. The material is New Jersey brown-stone and the 
yellowish marble from Ohio in almost equal parts, though 
on account of the latter composing the trimming mate- 
rial the brown stone gives the building the controlling 
air. The building contains twenty -five apartments in all, 
including gymnasium, library, lecture-rooms, offices, etc. 
Besides this general building, the Association has rooms at 
76 Varick Street, One Hundred and Twenty-Second 
Street and Third Avenue, and at 97 Wooster Street, for 
colored young men. 

" Branching off along the same street, to the west of 
Fifth Avenue, will bring us to Booth's new theater, on the 
corner of Sixth Avenue and Twenty-third Street. The 
building is in the Renaissance style of architecture, and 
stands seventj^-five feet high from the sidewalk to the 
main cornice, crowning which is a Mansard roof of twenty- 
four feet. The theater proper fronts one hundred and 
forty-nine feet on Twenty-third Street, and is divided into 
three parts, so combined as to form an almost perfect 
whole, with arched entrances at either extremity on the 
side for the admission of the public, and on the other for 
another entrance and the use of actors and those employed 

77 



610 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

in the house. There are three doors on the frontage, 
devised for securing the most rapid egress of a crowded 
audience in case of fire, and, in connection with other 
facilities, said to permit the building to be vacated in five 
minutes. On either side of these main entrances are 
broad and lofty windows ; and above them, forming a part 
of the second story, are niches for statues, surrounded by 
coupled columns resting on finely-sculptured pedestals. The 
central or main niche is flanked on either side by quaintly- 
contrived blank windows ; and between the columns, at 
the depths of the recesses, are simple pilasters, sustaining 
the elliptic arches, which will serve to span and top the 
niches, the latter to be occupied by statues of the great 
creators and interpreters of the drama in every age and 
country. The finest Concord granite, from the best quar- 
ries in New Hampshire, is the material used in the entire 
faeade, as well as in the Sixth Avenue side. The interior 
— probably the most complete and elegant in the world — 
is equally deserving of notice. It is subdivided, architect- 
urally speaking, into four heights. The first and lower- 
most embraces the parquet, circle, and orchestra seats, for 
the accommodation of eight hundred persons. The second 
tier is thrown into the dress-circle ; the third constitutes 
the family circle ; and the fourth embraces the gallery, 
or amphitheater. There is something of the French 
model suggested by the general effect of the interior, but 
there are many graceful and pleasing originalities. The 
stage is fifty-five feet in breadth, seventy-five feet in depth, 
fifty in total height, and is set in a beautiful ornamental 
framework, so as to give the effect of a gorgeously framed 
picture to the mise en scene. The boxes are tastefully 
arranged on either side of the stage ; and all of the inte- 
rior divisions and subdivisions unite in their construction 
the latest and most improved appliances for celerity and 
ease in the manifold operations of the entire company. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. Q\\ 

Taken from a point embracing the Sixth Avenue and 
Twenty-third Street facades, the glittering granite mass, 
exquisitely poised, adorned with rich and appropriate 
carving, statuary, columns, pilasters, and arches, and 
capped by the springing French roof, fringed with its 
shapely balustrades, offers an imposing and majestic 
aspect, and forms one of the architectural jewels of the 
city. 

" The Grand Opera-house is an imposing and elegant 
structure, and occupies the block on Eighth Avenue between 
Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Streets. It is estimated 
to have cost nearly half a million of dollars. It fronts 
one hundred and thirteen feet on the Avenue, and ninety- 
eight feet on Twenty-third Street, and is eighty feet high 
from the base to the cornice. It has a basement and four 
floors — the former being occupied by a warming appara- 
tus, and as a general store-room for the theater. The main 
entrance to the theater is twenty-one feet wide, and leads 
up a passage eighty feet long into a vestibule forty- 
five by seventy-two feet. Thence the visitor passes up the 
main staircase, twelve feet wide, which conducts him 
directly into the dress-circle. The upper stories, which 
are divided into the family-circle and the amphitheater, 
have their entrance on Twenty-third Street. The parquet 
and orchestra are arranged in the usual manner — the for- 
mer occupying the elevation of the inclined plane. The 
stage is seventy-two by seventy-six feet, which, including 
the proscenium, makes a total depth of eighty-four feet. 
It is capitally adapted for setting elaborate scenes and 
spectacles, the ground beneath being excavated to the 
depth of twenty-five feet. The scenery is so arranged as 
to descend through the stage and slide at the sides in the 
usual way. The exterior of the building is a good speci- 
men of the Italian order of architecture. At the top, over 
the main entrance, is a statuesque group representing 



612 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 



Apollo and Erato. Below this are medallions of Shake- 
speare and Mozart; and on either side of the window 
below are large figures representing Comedy and Tragedy. 
Emblazoned coats-of-arms brighten the main entrance on 
either side. One of the most praiseworthy features of this 
noble theater is the ease with which the audience can 
make their exit from the building in case of fire — there 
being no less than seven exits leading directly to the 
streets, and all readily accessible. The front of the the- 
ater, on Eighth Avenue, is of solid marble, with orna- 
mental cornice ; and the interior is lighted by chandeliers 
in a dome thirty feet in diameter." * 

Indeed, it needs no prophetic vision to foretell that 
soon New York will have justly entitled herself to the 
name of the City of Palaces. In fact, only two things are 
now apparently required to enable the keystone to be 
placed upon the ediiice begun by our Dutch ancestors, 
viz., a good municipal government, and a safe and rapid 
means of transit from the upper to the lower portions of 
the island. From the peculiar topographical situation of 
New York — it being, in effect, a long and narrow penin- 
sula — the population, unable to spread itself out on- each 
side, is either obliged to reside on the opposite banks of 
two rivers, or is forced into the upper portion of the 
island — either of which alternatives is extremely incon- 
venient to the business community. To lessen this in- 
convenience various schemes have been devised, such as 
an " arcade railroad " underneath Broadway, or a horse- 
car railroad on the surface of the same thoroughfare. 
There was also this year a pneumatic railroad started 
underground, at the corner of Warren Street and 
Broadway, which has been carried as far as Murray ; 
while an elevated railroad, on iron pillars, was com- 

* New York Illustrated. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 613 

pleted on Greenwich Street from the Battery to Thirtieth 
Street, though the cars are not yet making regular trips. 
Neither of* these plans, however, meet all the requirements 
of the case, and it is evident that a mode of transit fulfilling 
all the conditions of success has yet to be invented. It can- 
not, however, be doubted that, with the fertility of 
expedients which New-Yorkers have always shown 
to meet any exigencies that might arise, this desirable 
consummation is only a question of time. 

The opening of the year 1870 saw the old charter 
abolished by the Legislature, and a new one given to 
the citv. The change first had its origin in the 

. 1870. 

members of the Tammany organization sep- 
arating into two bitter opposing factions called re- 
spectively the "Old" and "Young" Democracy — the 
former being led on the war-path by Wm. M. Tweed, and 
the latter by Sheriff O'Brien. After much angry dis- 
putation, both in this city and in the halls of the State 
Capitol, the "Old Democracy" triumphed, and carried 
through the new charter. While the fate of that instru- 
ment was in abeyance, the excitement ran high, and 
many old and staunch Republicans united, or more prop- 
erly espoused, for the time being, the cause of the 
"Young Democracy," whose watchword professed to be 
" thorough reform in all departments of our corrupt city 
government." Indeed, so important did it appear that 
the old charter should be retained, or rather that the 
new one should be defeated, that the president of the 
Union League Club, Hon. Jackson L. Schultz, hastily 
called a meeting on the evening of the 2d of April, at 
which a committee of fifteen, with the Hon. Horace 
Greeley as chairman, was appointed to proceed to Albany 
at the earliest possible moment, and " protest emphati- 
cally against the passage of the charter now before the 
Senate, unless it is essentially amended." But although 



614 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



the committee performed their duties faithfully, even to 
opposing it on the floor of the Senate, their efforts availed 
little ; and although a few modifications were introduced 
into it, jet the Central Park Commission, with their 
powers, were changed ; and the new charter was given 
to the city substantially in its original shape.* 



* The old and new departments compare as follows 

New. 
Finance. 
Law. 
Police. 

Public Works. 
Charities and Correction. 
Fire. 
Health. 
Public Parks. 
Buildings. 
Docks 



Old. 
Finance. 
Law. 
Police. 

Croton Board. 
Street Department. 
Charities and Correction. 
Fire. 
Health. 
Central Park. 
Buildings. 



The number of these departments remains the same, though two old ones 
are consolidated, and one entirely new one created. 

The direct power of the people in the election of public officers under the 
new charter, and as formerly exercised, compares as follows : 



Under New Charter. 
The people elect — 
Mayor. 

Corporation Counsel. 
Aldermen, who are also Super- 
visors. 
Assistant Aldermen. 
School Officers. 
Judicial and County Officers. 



Under the Old System. 
The people elected — 
Mayor. 

Corporation Counsel. 
Comptroller. 

Aldermen and Assistants. 
Supervisors. 
School Officers. 
Judicial and County Officers. 



It will thus be seen that the sum of these changes shows a very considerable 
loss in the people, even if the various commissioners and other officers were 
appointed by a Mayor elected for that purpose. But when it is remembered 
that the appointments are all made by an official about retiring from office, to 
be succeeded by a Mayor who can exercise no control whatever over any of 
these executive departments, it will be apparent that the City Government, 
instead of being more democratic than under the old system, is in reality a 
great deal less so. 

At the present time of writing, however (January, 1872), the presumption 
is, that the "new charter" will be entirely abolished by the present Legisla- 
ture now in session ; the State election held on the 7th of November, 1871, 
having returned a majority of members to both houses pledged to its repeal. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 615 

The main peculiarity of the new charter, stripped of 
all of its verbiage, appears to consist in two things, viz. . 
first, that the various commissions which ruled so many 
departments of the city government and were appointed 
by the Governor of the State, instead of being elected by 
the people, are retained, with this difference, that the ap- 
pointing power is vested in the Mayor of the city of New 
York ; and secondly, that the old system of choosing in- 
spectors of election is re-established, while the registry 
law is also retained. 



CHAPTER XV. 

The year 1871 will always be memorable from the 
occurrence of three events— one of pleasant and two of 
painful memories. These were: first, the Orange 

1 87 1 • 

Riot; second, the noble manner in which the 
city of New York responded to the request of the suffer- 
ers of the Great Chicago Fire for relief; and, third, 
the culmination and exposure of the gigantic frauds, and 
the downfall of the ! ' Tammany Ring." 



The Orange Riot, which at one time promised to be 
as disastrous in its effect upon life and property as the 
" Draft Riot " of the Civil War, occurred on the after- 
noon of Wednesday, the 12th of July. Numerous threats 
having been made by the Roman Catholics against the 
Orangemen should they turn out in procession in honor 
of the victory won by the Prince of Orange at the battle 
of the Boyne, the Mayor issued a proclamation forbidding 
the parade. This step, however, at once aroused such an 
outburst of indignation, irrespective of party — not only 
in the city but throughout the country — that Governor 
Hoffman hastened to issue, on the morning of the day, 
a counter-proclamation, guaranteeing the safety of all 
Orangemen who should join in the celebration. The 
procession accordingly formed at the head-quarters of the 
Oiangemen, on the corner of Twenty-ninth Street and 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. (J17 

Eighth Avenue, and began its march under the escort of 
tour militia regiments, the Seventh, Ninth, Twenty-second, 
and Eighty-fourth, and a large force of policemen. Scarcely ? 
however, had the procession begun its march, when it 
was attacked at the intersection of Eighth Avenue and 
Twenty-sixth Street, both with missiles and fire-arms, 
hurled and discharged from the street and neighboring 
housetops. The Seventh Regiment, followed by the 
Eighty-fourth and the Ninth, thereupon, acting under 
general though not specific orders, began firing on the 
crowd by sections, and with such effect that the mob were 
quickly dispersed. As is almost always the case on such 
occasions, several innocent persons were unavoidably killed. 
Still, it is believed that the promptness with which the 
military opened fire was the means of preventing a vast 
amount of bloodshed. The number of those who were 
killed in this riot was sixty- two. 

On the morning of Sunday, the 6th of October, the 
citizens of New York city were startled by the news 
which flashed along the telegraphic wires that a terrific 
fire was raging in a sister city. Nor were the emotions 
to which this intelligence gave rise dissipated when, on 
the next day, and the next, news came that the fire was 
still burning with increasing fury, and on the day fol- 
lowing the further intelligence that, although the fire 
had been extinguished by a providential rain, yet it was 
not until five square miles of Chicago had been reduced 
to ashes, one hundred thousand people rendered houseless, 
and several hundred persons burned to death. 

In response to the cry for help that went up from the 
stricken city, instant and abundant relief was sent from 
every part of the Union. Wherever the news was carried 
it awakened the best impulses of human nature. The 
General Government sent thousands of tents and army 

78 



613 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

rations. Societies and private citizens sent money, cloth- 
ing, and provisions. Railroad companies dispatched spe- 
cial trains laden with these gifts. From Canada and from 
Europe came expressions of sympathy and proffers of 
assistance. Foremost among all in the good work was 
New York city. On Monday and Tuesday, while the 
fire was in progress, nearly all business was suspended 
Crowds surrounded the bulletin boards of the newspaper 
and telegraph offices ; men meeting with men could talk 
of nothing save the great and — as all considered it — 
national calamity ; and although there was scarcely a per- 
son whose business was not more or less injured by the 
fire, yet when the event was spoken of it was to express 
heartfelt sympathy with the sufferers — personal consider- 
ations were cast entirely aside. 

As soon as the extent of the disaster was known, 
meetings were held for the purpose of raising contribu- 
tions in money and clothing in aid of the victims ; collec- 
tions were taken up at the different churches ; the pro- 
prietors of the New York Tribune offered any Chicago 
newspaper the use of a duplicate set of type and presses ; 
A. T. Stewart gave individually fifty thousand dollars ; 
and wagons went through the streets bearing large 
placards, with the words: "We take Contributions for 
the Chicago sufferers." Public and private liberality 
walked hand in hand. In less than two weeks the hand- 
some amount in money and material of nearly three mil- 
lions of dollars was raised and forwarded to Chicago. The 
City of New York had acquitted herself nobly. 

Although it had long been known by the citizens of 
New York, and the people throughout the country gene- 
rally, that immense frauds were being perpetrated by cer- 
tain persons ycleped " members of the Tammany Ring," 
yet it was not until the early summer of this year that 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 619 

the people were fully aroused, both to the alarming state 
of affairs and to the necessity of bringing the guilty par- 
ties to justice. Accordingly a vigorous attack upon the 
" Ring " was first made by the New York Times, which, 
in a series of able editorials, exposed, by the publication 
of the exorbitant sums paid for different articles furnished 
the city government and other documents, the iniquitous 
proceedings by which the tax-payers of the city had been 
robbed of their money. There was the record of mil- 
lions paid away for work that never was done, supplies 
that never were furnished, chairs and carpets that never 
were seen in any of the city or county offices. There 
were warrants drawn in favor of men who had no exist- 
ence, and indorsed to the order of particular friends and 
instruments of the "Ring." There were proofs of the 
most daring forgery as well as of wholesale robbery. The 
whole country was aroused. Even Europe rang with the 
scandal. 

At first the leaders of the " Ring " contented them- 
selves with replying either by gibes or by the argumentum 
ad hominem — referring to alleged frauds in the departments 
of the Federal Government. At length, however, the 
sledge-hammer blows dealt day after day in the columns 
of the Times began to tell, and the "Ring" leaders, relin- 
quishing their former tactics of treating the accusations 
lightly, and as a thing to be settled merely by a pert 
repartee, resorted to various quibbles. The Mayor, for 
example, stated that he had acted " ministerially," and 
had, therefore, " no personal responsibility." He also said 
that his name had been forged to duplicate bills, while the 
other officers of the municipal government, following the 
same line, assumed an air of entire ignorance regarding 
their alleged fraudulent practices. 

Meanwhile the disclosures of corruption and malfea- 
sance in office were of so astounding a nature that the 



620 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

people were at length aroused to the importance of vigor- 
ous measures, and joined in a general demand for some 
action that would lead to the deposition of the men who 
had violated their oaths of office and betrayed their high 
trusts, chief among whom were mentioned A. Oakey 
Hall, Mayor ; Peter B. Sweeney, President of the Com- 
mission of Public Parks ; William M. Tweed, Commis- 
sioner of Public Works ; and Richard B. Connolly, Comp- 
troller of the City and County of New York — public 
officers commonly known as the " Ring " rulers of this 
city. 

In obedience to the popular demand the following call 
was issued and published in the public newspapers : 

" A meeting of citizens and tax-payers, irrespective of party, to consider 
the present condition of the city finances in view of the charges of corruption 
that have been made in respect to them, and to take such action as the public 
safety may require, will be held at the Cooper Union on Monday, September 
4th, 1871, at 8 P. M. Hon. Wm. F. Havemeyer will preside. Hon. Edward 
Salomon, Hon. Robert B. Roosevelt, Hon. James Emott, Hon. Oswald Otten- 
dorfer, Hon. Edwards Pierrepont, Hon. Thomas A. Ledwith, and others, have 
accepted invitations to address the meeting'. All persons opposed to the cor- 
rupt administration of city affairs are respectfully invited to attend. 

In response to this call Cooper Union was crowded on 
the evening of the 4th of September in every part, and 
long before the hour announced for the opening of the 
meeting thousands of citizens were obliged to return to 
their homes, unable to obtain admission. 

At eight o'clock, James M. Brown, Esq., of the firm 
of Messrs. Brown Brothers & Co., bankers, called the 
meeting to order, and nominated for chairman the Hon. 
William F. Havemeyer, ex-Mayor of the city of New 
York. The organization was completed by the election 
of two hundred and twenty-seven Vice-Presidents and 
fifteen Secretaries. These were chosen from among the 
most distinguished citizens of New York city. 

At this meeting, after the subject for which it had 
been called had been ably presented by speakers of both 



HISTORY OP NEW YORK CITY. 621 

parties, Joseph H. Choate, Esq., reported a series of reso- 
lutions, which were unanimously adopted, and are ap- 
pended, and a committee of seventy citizens and tax-pay- 
ers was chosen in accordance with the recommendation 
therein contained. 

THE RESOLUTIONS. 

•'Resolved, That the tax-payers and citizens of New York have learned with 
astonishment and alarm that the funded and bonded debt of the city and 
county has been more than doubled within the last two and a half years ; that 
the acknowledged indebtedness of the city and county is now upward of 
$113,000,000, being over $63,000,000 more than it was when the present Mayor 
took his office, and that there is reason to believe that there are floating con- 
tingent or pretended debts and claims against the city and county which will 
amount to many millions of dollars in addition, which will be paid out of the 
City and County Treasury, unless the present financial officers are removed or 
their proceedings arrested. 

" Resolved, That the distinct, precise, and emphatic charges in regard to the 
use and expenditure of this enormous sum, and the fraudulent misappropria- 
tion of the public money, which have been made against the present city and 
county officials, have been met by these officers with contemptuous denials of 
any power to interfere, with flippant evasions, with studied concealment of a 
large part of the public accounts, and with attempts to garble and confuse the 
residue, and by the other parties implicated with an utter silence, which is a 
confession of their guilt. 

" Resolved, That the facts and figures already disclosed compel us, as they 
must all honest and reflecting men, to the conclusion that enormous sums of 
money have been wrongfully taken from the public treasury ; that millions of 
dollars have been paid to a few firms and individuals for work never performed 
and materials never furnished, and this with the procurement or connivance 
of persons now holding the principal offices of trust and profit under the pres- 
ent charter ; that exorbitant rents are paid for military armories and offices, 
and in several instances in rooms which do not exist or are not occupied. 
That the long and continued concealment of the accounts of the city proper 
furnishes ground to believe that these accounts will disclose facts, if possible, yet 
more astounding, and will show that the same men who have squandered or 
stolen hundreds of thousands of the tax-payers' moneys are still engaged in 
similar frauds and peculations. 

" Resolved, That the public officers directly arraigned at the bar of public 
judgment for these offenses, are William M. Tweed, now Commissioner of the 
Department of Public Works, some time President of the former Board of 
Supervisors, and afterward one of the ' Interim ' Board, who had notoriously 
a controlling influence in the first of these Boards and shared in the acts of the 
other, and who from his relations to parties in whose name bills were pre- 
sented, and to whom they were ordered to be paid, is open to the suspicion, 
not only of having planned the swindle, but of having shared the plunder; 
Richard B. Connolly, the present Comptroller, and A. Oakey Hall, the present 



622 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Mayor, who were also members of the ' Interim ' Board which sanctioned the 
payment of several millions of dollars, contrary to law and right, but who also 
signed the warrants and consented to the payments which they confess they 
had the power to expose, if not to arrest ; and unless these officers can meet 
the charges by other evidence and on different pleas than have yet been fur- 
nished in their behalf, the credit of the city of New York and the material 
interests of its citizens will demand that they quit or be deprived of the offices 
which they have dishonored and the power they are abusing. 

" Resolved, That we have a right to, and do, demand a full and detailed 
exhibit of the public receipts and expenditures for the past two years and a 
half, and of the real and pretended liabilities of the city and county of New 
York, including its funded and its floating debt. This demand is not simply 
to show whether the men who have used money of the city and created its now 
enormous debt, can produce vouchers or accounts for every payment, or 
whether the books of the Comptroller will balance, but what is the total 
amount which has been collected from taxes, received from revenue and bor- 
rowed upon the credit of the city ; and what has been done with the money, to 
whom it has been paid and upon what considerations and pretense, in every 
instance. 

" Resolved, That the citizens of the city have also a right to know, and are 
determined to ascertain, who are and have been on the pay-rolls of the City 
Government, what pay they receive and what services they render, as well as 
who have actually profited by the enormous payments of bills or accounts, 
obviously exceeding any value received by the city ; who are represented by 
the fictitious names alleged to appear in these accounts, and to what extent 
any members of the present City Government are concerned, in real partner- 
ships or under fictitious names, in the plunder of the public treasury. 

" Resolved, That any legal remedy which is now available to citizens at 
large to fully ascertain and disclose frauds charged upon the city and county 
officers, and to recover the money wrongfully taken thereby from the public 
treasury, should be resorted to, and that if no such remedies are found to exist, 
then the law should be altered so as to enable citizens and tax-payers, under 
proper restrictions and regulations, to call officers intrusted by them with 
power and money to legal account, and to invoke the arm of justice to discover 
fraud in public officers and to prevent or redress the dishonest appropriation 
of public money. 

" Resolved, That we appeal to the next Legislature of the State to repeal the 
charter and laws by which the present rulers of the city have obtained and 
perpetuated their power, and to give to the city of New York a form of gov- 
ernment such as shall be devised or approved of by our wisest and best citizens, 
an' shall enable us to secure an honest and efficient administration of the laws. 

" Resolved, That the citizens of this city are earnestly entreated to make 
the reform of their own government the one controlling issue at the next elec- 
tion, to support no man for office, and especially for the Legislature of the 
State, no matter what may be his party name, who is not known to be both 
honest and incorruptible, and determined and distinctly pledged, so far as he is 
able, whatever may be the consequences, to reform the city of New York ; and 
that our fellow-citizens throughout the State are entreated to join ns in the 
effort to redress evils which concern them hardly less than ourselves. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 623 

" Resolved, That the public credit, character, and the business interests of 
this great and growing city imperatively demand that its citizens be kept fully 
and constantly informed of the issue of any public stock, bonds, or other evi- 
dences of debt binding the real or personal property of the city or its citizens ; 
and further, that legal provision should be made for preventing any such 
issue not especially authorized, or exceeding the amount specifically appropri- 
ated for that purpose (by means, if necessary, of officers to be elected by the 
people of this city, in such manner as to secure the representation of the whole 
people, the minority as well as the majority). 

" Resolved, That the thanks of the community are due to the public news- 
papers who have contributed to enlighten the public mind and to form and 
give utterance to public opinion upon these issues, and especially to the New 
York Times, for its fearless and searching investigation and exposure of the 
public accounts and of the conduct of the present officers of the city. 

" Resolved, That an Executive Committee of seventy members be appointed 
by the President of this meeting, whose duty it shall be to take such meas- 
ures as shall be necessary or expedient to carry out the objects for which we 
are assembled, to demand a full exhibition of all the accounts of the city and 
county, and an explicit statement of. all the persons to whom, and the pretenses 
upon which the large payments of the past two years and a half have been 
made ; to enforce any remedies which now exist to obtain this information if 
it is refused, and to recover whatever sums of money have been fraudulently 
or feloniously abstracted ; and also to impress upon the Legislature and Gov- 
ernor of the State such, measures of legislation and action as may be necessary 
or proper to enforce the existing laws, and to supply their defects, and to 
remove the cause of the present abuses ; and finally, to assist, sustain, and 
direct an united effort, by the citizens of New York, without reference to party, 
to obtain a good government and honest officers to administer it ; and the said 
committee are hereby authorized to call upon all citizens interested in good 
government to contribute such funds as may be needed to execute the powers 
intrusted to them, and also to fill vacancies and add to their number." 

The Committee of Seventy, which, like the Vice- 
Presidents and Secretaries, was also composed of men of 
character and position, soon afterward met and organized 
by the selection of the following officers : 

Henry G. Stebbins, Chairman. 

William F. Havemeyer, Vice-Chairman. 

Roswell D. Hatch, Secretary. 

Emil Sauer, Treasurer. 

A Committee on Address was appointed, of which 

Major J. M. Bandy was chairman, who reported " An 

Appeal to the People of the State of New York," at 

a special meeting of the Committee of Seventy, held in 



624 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

the rooms of the Chamber of Commerce on Saturday, 
September 23d. The Address was unanimously adopted, 
and ordered to be printed for general circulation, together 
with the resolutions adopted at the meeting in Cooper 
Union on the evening of September 4th, and the speech 
delivered thereat by the Hon. Robert B. Roosevelt, M. C* 
The appeal read as follows : 

"On the 4th of this month the people of the City of New York assembled 
at Cooper Institute to give expression to the almost universal indignation that 
has been growing daily deeper against corrupt municipal officials. As this 
expression was deliberate and not spasmodic, it was not completed by the pro- 
ceedings of the most earnest and enthusiastic meeting held in this city since 
1861. Our best citizens, of both parties, felt that the hour had come when all 
lawful means must be used to redeem the city from plunderers and to restore 
her drooping credit. As the most effectual method of carrying out their pur 
pose a Committee of Seventy was appointed, which now, as part of its work, 
addresses the people of this State, and calls upon them to do their share toward 
effecting a thorough and complete reform. 

" What we have done here is known through the public press. What may 
and should be done elsewhere we propose to suggest, and from the stand-point 
of the wholly non-partisan movement which we represent. And at the outset 
we must say, that from the time of our appointment to the present this Com 
rnittee has not misrepresented the sentiment of the meeting which called it 
into being. 

" Some of the members of this Committee have been known by reputation 
to every intelligent voter of this State for many years, and their words will not 
be doubted when they say — as do all the Committee — that they have in all 
their deliberations faithfully represented the non-partisan spirit of the great 
body of citizens who conferred on them the high honor of serving as their 
spokesmen and agents. Not one word has been uttered in our most confiden- 
tial intercourse that could be construed into proof of the slightest desire to use 
the power of this Committee for any partisan end. We should have been not 
only false to a most sacred trust, but untrue to the inspiration that has daily 
come to us in the earnest support of both Democrats ana Republicans, had we 
failed to realize the nature of the righteous revolution which has brought us to 
the front. 

" We have not so failed, but have given all the aid in our power to the 
honest members of the party which is dominant here, and which is peculiarly 
humiliated by scoundrels who have misused an honored party name as a cover 
for their villainies. 

" We appeal to citizens of both parties to save us and the State from the 
possibility of another such degradation as has fallen on all of us, from Montauk 

* For this speech see Appendix No. XI. This speech should be read in con- 
nection with the text. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 625 

Point to the westernmost and northernmost corners of New York. It lies 
easily in your power to so assert the honest manhood that ought to prevail in 
both parties, that no such Legislatures as those of the last few years will be 
possible during the rest of this century. No private business, no partisan end, 
can be so important to any right-minded citizen as the plain duties that are 
thrown on him by recent deplorable revelations. Unfit nominations for the 
Legislature cannot succeed, and are not likely to be made, in any district where 
honest men are alive and awake to the issues of this campaign. The money 
that has been accumulated from the spoils of the metropolis will be poured out 
like water to procure the election of purchasable legislators, but it will be 
spent in vain wherever the people are aroused by a few earnest leaders. All 
the wealth of our city could not bribe a thoroughly awakened people or divert 
them from their purpose. Whether aroused by the treason that is bold and 
armed, or by the meaner and fouler treason that makes the ballot a farce, 
law an instrument of fraud, and courts of justice a snare, the people are equal 
to the demand, and their loyalty and honesty are sure to conquer. 

" A free and active and prosperous people like ours will endure many 
evils in their government ; but there is no power on earth that is so irresistible 
or so fatal to wrong-doers as the public opinion which is finally sure to be 
roused by successive and growing enormities. 

" The fountain can rise no higher than its source. When the people are 
apathetic, and demagogues and selfish schemers make a business of politics, 
there is no force to sustain our officials above the low level of indifference and 
easy morals. But the moral power of ten actively righteous men in every Assem- 
bly district would so raise the tone of local politics that no bad man could get 
his head high enough above the surface to command the support of either party. 

" Official corruption has grown up as the result of the necessarily enormous 
expenses of a gigantic war, of an inflated currency, of the magnificent chances 
offered to private ambitions, of stock and gold gambling, and a universally 
spread passion for sudden wealth and idle display. It is an evil which has 
afflicted both parties and dragged them down from the high principles that 
gave them origin. Honest and earnest patriots will feel the common woes and 
humiliations that have been brought on us by the representatives of both par- 
ties, and will be enkindled to a doubly bitter hatred of the Achans that are in 
their own camp, and that have draggled their own banners in the mire of 
corruption. 

" In this city, where one political party has had unchecked rule for so many 
years, and where millions could be stolen from the tax-payers without imposing 
extra burdens that were felt as onerous by so wealthy a constituency, it is not 
strange that prevailing corruption should have broken out in aggravated 
forms, nor that all the evil elements in our community should have finally 
been combined into an apparently irresistible phalanx. No such mass of bad 
material was elsewhere to be found waiting such a masterly alliance of corrupt 
leaders to develop all its resources of evil. Ignorance furnishes ready tools 
of a combination that included a political craft worthy of a depraved Macchia- 
velli, an adroitness of advocacy that was effective in spite of occasional buf- 
fooneries, a coarse brutality of power that awed and inspired ruffians and low 
natures, and a sort of cunning that was the sublimation of the skill of the 
Bneak -thief. Given these elements, opportunities, and leaders, and the natural 
79 



626 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

result was the Ring, which, until lately, has robbed and stolen itself into power, 
which has bought Legislatures, controlled governors, corrupted newspapers, 
denied courts of justice, violated the ballot-box, threatened all forms of civil 
and religious liberty, awed the timid rich, bribed the toiling masses, and 
cajoled respectable citizens, and which has finally grown so strong and reckless 
as to openly defy the intelligence and virtue which it believed to be inert, 
voiceless, and powerless to stay its aggressions or to assert the supremacy of 
honesty and justice. 

" But you of the country must help us. This is your city, as truly as it is 
our own. We are your factors and business agents. If we are overburdened 
with taxes, you have to pay us the more for doing your business. The corrup- 
tion of our municipal government could not have grown to its present gigantic 
proportions had our leaders of the Ring not found active support and willing 
material in bribable members of the Legislature elected by the rural districts. 
You must help vis in our effort to purify our political life, and the one effica- 
cious manner by which you can come to our relief is to elect honest men only 
to the next Legislature. If our city is disgraced by a senator who domineers 
among weaker villains by mere grossness and magnitude of scoundrelism, he 
has found willing tools among the false representatives of districts where one 
year of his stealings would be regarded as enormous wealth. 

"There is no occasion for advice from this Committee as to the details of 
the great fight against all forms of official corruption which has made such 
cheering progress in this city. If the feeling which prevails among all our 
good citizens shall be shared by those who are further removed from the evils 
which at first appalled and then stung us into activity, earnest hearts will 
find ready means to incarnate honest purposes in noble actions, and to redeem 
the fair fame of our State for generations to come. We have tried to define 
the issue as it has pressed on us. If we have succeeded, and if you feel, as we 
do, that it is now the honest manhood of the State that is on trial, no combina- 
tion of political tricksters can repress or even direct the swelling tide of popu- 
lar indignation and resolve. In its presence all ordinary political issues will 
sink out of sight, and next November will witness a vindication of the manhood 
of the people of New York, as proud and momentous in its consequences as 
that which was attested when the State rose as one man at the call of a differ- 
ent form of patriotism. 

" The cause of self-government is deeply involved in this # campaign. Of 
what use was it for tens of thousands of our best and bravest to lay down 
their lives on distant fields, if our government — municipal, State, and national 
— are to fall into the hands of tricksters and thieves? Where is the demoral 
ization to end that has made such appalling progress in the city of New York ? 
Will even the local governments of the interior long withstand the inroads of 
corruption, when weak and bad men see it glittering with diamonds, reveling 
in private palaces, gaudy in equipages, and the master of the means of luxuri- 
ous vice, in the metropolis of the State? How long will it be safe for you to 
intrust your business to a community that you will not help to rid of thieves, 
and where successful villainy sets dangerous examples to men of easy con- 
sciences, infirm purpose, and eager ambition ? When the confidence that 
underlies all profitable human intercourse is sapped, in so far as concerns the 
relations between rulers and ruled among a quarter of the population of the 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 627 

State, where and how is the process of decay and disease to stop ? What other 
relations of trust between man and man will be long held sacred ? 

" We appeal especially to the vast reserve force of voters through whose 
criminal indifference to their political duties the shame and disgrace that we 
are now enduring has come upon us. At least one-third of the best classes of 
of our people are habitually absent from the polls. The forces of evil are 
active, crafty, and resolute. They are already visible all over the State, in 
the shape of combinations to purchase votes for the Ring with offers of 
local benefits. We believe that the temper of the people is such that it will 
render all these schemes futile and disastrous to their authors. The honest 
people of this State have never before had such inspiration to redeem them- 
selves from all the wiles of corruptionists ami to teach them a lesson that will 
be remembered for generations to come. Never has the proud motto of our 
State been more appropriate than it will be if we do our duty this fall. In 
our glorious resurrection of public virtue the humiliations of the past will be 
forgotten as a hateful dream, and every institution of our society and politics 
will feel the elevating influences of revived confidence in honesty and justice." 

Thus the matter rested until the morning of the 11th 
of September, when it was discovered(]) that the Comptrol- 
ler's office at the City Hall had been broken open during 
the preceding night, and all the vouchers abstracted, to 
the number of more than thirty-five hundred, from their 
place of deposit.* The news of this robbery at once 
aroused such a storm of indignation from all classes, with- 
out distinction of party, that Mayor Hall, in a letter, 
immediately requested Mr. Connolly to resign his office 
of Comptroller. To this request, the latter returned a 
peremptory refusal, assigning as a reason, that for him to 
take such a step without impeachment, and a trial, and 
a conviction, would be tantamount to an acknowledgment 
of guilt. The day following, however, acting upon the 
advice of a prominent Democrat, viz., William H. Have- 
meyer, he appointed to the office of Deputy-Comptroller, 
Andrew H. Green. This appointment gave great satis- 
faction to the community, who now, for the first time, 
since the skein of corruption had begun to unravel, 

* It may strike the reader as singular that, when about a hundred thousand 
dollars had been paid for safes for the new Court-house the vouchers were 
kept in a glass-case — from which place they were abstracted as mentioned in the 
text. 



628 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

breathed more freely. Not only was Mr. Green a distin- 
guished member of the Democratic party, but he had 
formerly and for a long time held the responsible position 
of Comptroller of the Central Park Commission, dur- 
ing which period, although daily handling large sums of 
money, his record was unsullied. Against him, suspicion, 
with her hundred tongues, had never whispered the slight- 
est charge of venality. Soon after his assuming the 
duties of his office, he instituted an investigation into the 
" voucher robbery" — an investigation which resulted in 
the discovery of their charred remains in an old ash-heap 
in the attic of the City Hall. The supposed agents in 
this affair were arrested, indicted, and committed for trial 
without bail, but up to the present period remain untried. 
But Deputy-Comptroller Green did not stop here. He 
quickly lopped off the fungi which had been clinging to 
the city treasury in the form of sinecure offices ; reduced 
all expenditures to the lowest point consistent with a 
safe administration of the finances ; brought order out of 
chaos ; and very soon saved large sums to the city. 

Almost the first action of the Committee of Seventy 
was to procure an injunction from Judge Barnard, re- 
straining, for the present, the payment of all moneys out 
of the city treasury. This order, however, was subse- 
quently modified, so as to allow the payment of the labor- 
ers on the public works, and the progress and completion 
of permanent works, such as the receiving and distributing 
reservoirs, and the laying of mains, but forbidding the use 
of the moneys raised for such purposes for the ordinary 
expenses of the department. At the same time some of 
the largest banks — such was the confidence felt in the 
integrity of Andrew H. Green — advanced nearly a million 
dollars with which to meet the more pressing claims 
against the city, and enable the wheels of government to 
roll more smoothly. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 629 

The next step of the Committee was to present the 
Mayor for indictment before the Grand Jury. Here 
again the "Ring" endeavored to suborn justice, for it 
was presently discovered that the jury had evidently — as 
the technical phrase is — been " packed," from the foreman 
down, with relations and personal intimates of the person 
to be indicted. Upon this fact being brought to the no- 
tice of Judge Barnard, he immediately dismissed the 
jurors and ordered another " panel." The new " panel," 
however, failed, from lack of sufficient evidence, to bring- 
in an indictment against the Mayor. 

Proceeding in the work they had undertaken, the 
Committee next called upon the Governor of the State, 
and requested him to appoint Charles O'Conor to assist 
the Attorney-General in prosecuting the most prominent 
officers of the city government for malfeasance in office. 
In reply, the Governor stated that he had no power to 
take such action, but he would recommend that course to 
the Attorney-General. Thereupon the latter wrote a 
letter to Mr. O'Conor, empowering him to act for the 
State, and to employ such associates as he might deem 
proper. Hon. William M. Evarts, Wheeler H. Peckham, 
and Judge Emott were thereupon chosen by Mr. O'Conor 
as associates. 

Mr. O'Conor and his associates at once went actively 
to work. On the 26th of October, William M. Tweed was 
arrested on the affidavit of Mr. Samuel J. Tilden, and held 
to bail in the sum of one million of dollars.* 

* Divested of all legal forms, the facts set forth by Mr. Tilden in his affida- 
vit were as follows : By the City Tax-Levy of 1870, section 4, the Mayor, the 
Comptroller, and the President of the Board of Supervisors were made a special 
Board of Audit, to decide upon all outstanding claims against the county of 
New York. Instead of auditing the claims, the Board delegated the duty of 
auditing the bills to Auditor James Watson, and directed the payment of 
whatever bills either Mr. Tweed or Mr. Joseph B. Young should certify as cor- 
rect. The bills were collected, amounting to $6,312,541.37, and were paid 
accordingly ; the whole amount going to the immediate personal friends and 



630 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Meanwhile the State election for members of the Leg- 
islature, State officers, and Judges of the Supreme Court 
of the city took place on the 7th of November. Perhaps 
never in the city's history — excepting the ones held in 
1768 and in the spring of 1800, when New York city 
decided the fate of John Adams* — had an election taken 

associates of Mr. William M. Tweed, nearly the whole of it upon vouchers 
which were indorsed by Andrew J. Garvey, James H. Ingersoll, under the 
style of " Ingersoll & Company," or " E. A. Woodward." As each set of war- 
rants was paid, Mr. E. A. Woodward, who acted throughout as the confiden- 
tial agent of Mr. Tweed, deposited to the account of Tweed in the National 
Broadway Bank his share of spoils. When the warrants were paid to Inger- 
soll or Garvey, they uniformly made a payment of a large part of the money 
to Woodward ; and a large part of this again was immediately deposited to the 
credit of Mr. Tweed. As this was done again and again, on twenty-six differ- 
ent days, and as all the transfers were made by drafts upon the same bank, the 
evidence was absolutely complete that Tweed shared in the proceeds of these 
fraudulent vouchers, audited and indorsed by him ; and the amount of stolen 
money thus directly traced from the public treasury to the pockets of this one 
person, through the transactions of this ad interim Board alone, is no less than 
one million of dollars. 

* The election of 1800, alluded to in the text, was probably the most bitter, 
personal, and hotly contested election that New York city has ever witnessed 
— and it was on this occasion that the remarkable spectacle was presented of 
Hamilton making speeches at the polls, and Burr dictating the Republican 
legislative ticket. The contests between the Federalists and the Republicans in 
the charter elections had gradually increased in bitterness, and the Federalists 
began gradually to lose ground. Thus, in the election of the preceding spring 
(1799), the Sixth and Seventh Wards were carried by the Federalist party ; 
and, elated by their success, the victors put forth renewed efforts in the elec- 
tion of this year. " To evade the property qualification, requiring every voter 
to be a landholder, an association of thirty-three young men purchased a 
house and lot in the Fifth Ward, jointly on the principle of a Tontine, and hav- 
ing thus rendered themselves eligible according to law, presented themselves at 
the polls as Republican voters. The same scheme was adopted in the Fourth 
Ward by a club of seventy-one members. The election returns showed four 
wards for the Republicans and three for the Federalists ; the Fifth Ward being 
carried in favor of the former by a majority of six, and the Fourth Ward by 
thirty-five. This result was at once contested by the Federalists, on the ground 
of illegal voting by the Tontine Association, and, on being submitted to the 
decision of the retiring board, the majority of which belonged to that party, 
was pronounced null and void, and the balance of power restored to the hands 
of the Federalists. The State election having been decided in favor of the 
Republicans by the election of ex-Governor George Clinton, Edward Living- 
ston, the brother of the well-known Chancellor of that name, received the 
appointment of Mayor of New York," and the vote of one majority in the 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. Q%1 

place that was attended with more acrimony or greater 
excitement. Turning, as it did, on the frauds of the Tam- 
many Ring, all classes of citizens, irrespective of party, 
were aroused. Merchants, almost to a man, closed their 
stores ; and thousands who had not voted for years exer- 
cised on this occasion the right of franchise. Republicans 
and Democrats united to crush one of the wickedest con- 
spiracies ever aimed against municipal integrity and life. 
The result was an overwhelming defeat of the " Rino- " 
General Franz Sigel was elected Register by a majority 
of twenty-five thousand votes. All of the anti-Tammany 
judges were elected ; and only one (Wm. M. Tweed) of 
the five Tammany Senators was successful. Of the 
twenty-one Assemblymen sent to the Legislature by the 
city, Tammany elected but seven ; while all the anti-Tam- 
many Aldermen were elected but two. Of the twenty- 
one Assistant Aldermen chosen, a majority were pledged 
to reform. 

Tammany, however, did not vield without a desperate 
struggle. All her old tactics of " ballot-stuffing," and 
intimidation at the polls, with which she was wont to be 
successful heretofore, were employed. "In this city," says 
the New York Tribune, in commenting upon the election, 
" the frauds on election day in Tweed's district are under- 
stood to have been enormous, and the intimidation of 
voters was without parallel in recent years. It is no 
exaggeration to say that the ballots for O'Donovan Rossa 
were kept out of the boxes by sheer ruffianism ; and in 
many precincts it was literally unsafe to vote against the 
' Boss.' Anti-Tammany voters were beaten and driven 
away from the polls, and there seems to be ground for 
charging that some of the police were in collusion with the 
assailants. If Tweed were allowed to take his seat in the 

electoral college, consequent upon the result of the New York State election, 
gave the Presidency to Jefferson instead of to Adams. 



632 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Senate on the strength of an election like this, the princi- 
ples of free republican government would receive a worse 
blow than from the theft of twenty millions of dollars."* 

The effects of the election were soon apparent. Mem- 
bers of the Ring who, up to this time, had been defiant, 
became crestfallen ; several of the most prominent of them 

* To the same effect, Mr. Melville D. Landon, a perfectly credible journal- 
ist, wrote the next day after the election, in the Commercial Advertiser, as 
follows : 

" The disgraceful scenes, the ruffianly assaults, the dishonest repeating, 
fraudulent voting, and final surrender of the ballot-boxes in this Tweed ward 
cannot be described. I am not writing about what I heard or read in the news- 
papers, but I state what 1 saw with my own eyes. 

" I saw drunken men come into the second voting precinct — not with Repub- 
lican votes, for such a man would have been assaulted in three minutes, but 
with the ticket of the Committee of Seventy, including O'Donovan Rossa, and 
lay them on the ballot-boxes. 

" I saw Edward Coppers, a low, vulgar scoundrel, acting as inspector, snap 
these votes off, and before the eyes of Michael Costello, the only Republican 
who dared to stay in the room, deposit Tweed votes. 

" I saw four policemen, among whom was a contemptible scoundrel of the 
name of Francis O'Rourke, connive at these frauds. 

" I saw thief after thief come in, whom Mr. Costello knew to be voting fraud- 
ulently, and their votes were received by their associate thief, Coppers, and 
deposited unchallenged. 

" I saw brave Michael Costello challenge one brutal repeater, and then I 
saw five scoundrels assault him, and drag him to the ground, while four police- 
men stood by and saw it done. 

" Then I saw Francis O'Rourke march this innocent brave Republican chal- 
lenger to the station-house, and falsely accuse him of assault, when he knew 
he was telling a villainous lie. 

" Then 1 saw Michael Costello in a cold, damp, stone cell, looking, like a 
felon, out of an iron gate. 

" Shall this scoundrel police officer, Francis O'Rourke, go free — shall he still 
remain on the police force ? 

" After this I saw the ballot-boxes in the hands of thieves and repeaters. 
Every Republican vote was rejected unless it was disguised. Only Tweed 
votes were received. 

" After this, H. G. Leask, of the ' Committee of Seventy,' sent Patrick Elliff 
to take Michael Costello's place. He was assaulted and driven away from the 
polls, and Mr. Leask's son was also abused and struck. The mob of thieve? 
and roughs now attacked Mr. Leask's store, which was defended by police. 

" To this the writer proposes to testify when Wm. M. Tweed asks for his 
seat in Albany next winter. This morning I see this voting precinct gave 346 
votes for Tweed and only 42 against him, when it cast 48 Republican votes for 
Woodford in 1870." 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 633 

hastened to hand in their resignations of important posi- 
tions which they held ; and, finally, on the 20th of 
November, Richard B. Connolly resigned his office as 
Comptroller in favor of Andrew H. Green, who was at once 
appointed to the vacancy by the Mayor.* With this mem- 
orable election the curtain fell upon the play which Tam- 
many had so long kept upon the political boards, to rise 
again under very different management. 

On the 25th of November ex-Comptroller Connolly was 
arrested on substantially the same charges as his colleague 
in public office, William M. Tweed, and was also held to 
bail in the same sum ; but, not so fortunate as the latter, 
he was unable to obtain the requisite amount of bail, and, 
on the 29th of November, was committed to the Ludlow 
Street Jail, where he remained until the last day of the 
year. On the 16th of December the Grand Jury indicted 
William M. Tweed for felony. On his way to the Tombs, 
however, he was rescued by a writ of habeas corpus ; and, 
upon being taken before Judge Barnard, was released on 

* Undoubtedly, one of the principal results of the election will be tbe 
creating of a new charter for tbe city. In framing one, tbe leading idea, says 
tbe New York TKmes, should be so " to reduce the profits of office-holding, tbat 
the professional politicians and place-hunters will be forced to abandon their 
corrupt and corrupting avocation. Every officer under the City Government 
should receive a fixed salary, and in no case should he be allowed to pocket 
any of the fees connected with his office. So far as possible all fees should be 
abolished, and, wherever they are collected, they should be promptly turned 
over to the City Treasury. As for the subordinate offices, such as clerkships 
and tbe like, it would be well if they could be made permanent and independ- 
ent of political changes. Civil service reform is now agitating tbe minds of 
the best men in tbe country of both parties, and is looked forward to as the 
cure for the worst evils of our politics. The Republican Party now adminis- 
tering tbe National Government lias taken the initiative in this much-needed 
reform. Why should not the same party, which will have entire control of the 
next Legislature, second the efforts of their representatives in the General 
Government, and anticipate them in making a practical trial of the experi- 
ment ? No better place could be found to test the virtues of civil service 
reform than the City of New York ; for nowhere else have the evils of the old 
system wrought such wide-spread corruption, and produced such demoraliza- 
tion of political parties as here." 
80 



634 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

the trifling sum of five thousand dollars bail. At length, on 
Friday, the 29th day of December, Mr. Tweed, forced to 
the step by the power of public opinion, resigned his office 
of Commissioner of Public Works, George Van Nort, a 
gentleman of large experience and high standing, being- 
appointed to fill the vacancy. On the same day that this 
resignation was sent in, Mayor Hall was prohibited by a 
writ from Judge Brady from reappointing or recognizing 
the old Common Council ; while, to complete the final 
downfall of the " Ring," William M. Tweed, spurned by 
nearly all of his fair-weather friends, was ejected from the 
position of Grand Sachem of the Tammany Society — 
Augustus Schell being elected to his place by acclama- 
tion.* 

Upon the assembling of the Legislature at Albany on 
the 1st of January, 1872, the Committee of Seventy for- 
warded a petition to the Senate praying for the expulsion 
of Wm. M. Tweed from his seat in that body ; and 
here, at the present time of writing (February 
1st, 1872), the matter rests. The " Tammany Ring has 
been broken into fragments." Tweed is under heavy 
bonds to answer for various charges ; Connolly and other 
subordinate, though probably not less guilty, leaders, keep 
out of the public view ; James Fisk, Jr.,t is in his grave — 

* As an illustration of the unstableness of power and influence, especially 
when not founded upon principles of rectitude, the reader can compare the 
position held by Mr. Tweed now (1872) with the one held by him only a few 
months since, when, at the wedding of his daughter, nearly $100,000 worth of 
gifts was presented to the latter by her father's political and personal 
admirers. At the close of Appendix No. XI. a partial list of these presents is 
given, both as a curious bit of history and as a " sign " of the " times." No 
propriety is violated by this publication, since the list was printed at the time, 
purposely, by the family in nearly all of the city papers. 

For the act of incorporation of the Tammany Society see Appendix No. XII. 

f On Sunday, the 7th of January, 1872, James Fisk, Jr., died from the effects 
of a pistol shot received at the hands of Edward S. Stokes, on the afternoon 
previous, in the Grand Central Hotel. 

It may, at first, seem singular that Fisk is mentioned in the text in connec- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 535 

having come to a violent end by unlawful means ; and the 
names of the chief actors in the Tammany frauds are liter- 
ally a " by-word and a hissing " to the " ends of the earth." * 
What further course will be taken, and with what results, 
cannot now with certainty be stated. Already, however, 
a good work has been performed ; and the probabilities 
are, that if the Committee push matters with the same 
energy they have up to the present time evinced, the 
members of the "Ring" will be brought to justice, and 
forced to disgorge their ill-gotten gains. Then shall the 
City of New York, it is to be hoped, be as distinguished 
for the purity of her government, as she now is for her 
liberality, her influence, and her wealth. t 

tion with the Tammany leaders. Investigation, however, points to him as 
having, with the " Erie Ring," been thoroughly identified with them in sun- 
dry ways. At least such is the prevailing public opinion, shown by the fact 
that his death is universally accepted as another sign of the utter disruption 
and ruin of the " Tammany Ring." 

* Chief among the causes which undoubtedly led to the overthrow of the 
" Tammany Ring " were the caricatures or cartoons which appeared from time 
to time in Harper's Weekly. The effects of these, by bringing the leaders of 
the " Ring" into justly merited ridicule, cannot, perhaps, be over-estimated. 
Indeed, in all ages, before the invention of printing, and since, " picture writ- 
ing" has been one of the most effectual weapons for moving and directing 
public opinion. Every one will perceive the power of these methods of giving 
expression to suppressed opinion, especially upon the ignorant multitude, by 
reflecting what has often been the effect of a good caricature upon his own 
mind. 

f Before closing the record of this year allusion should be made to the 
" Westfield disaster." The Westjield, which was a ferry-boat plying between 
the city and Staten Island, exploded her boilers just as she was on the point 
of leaving Whitehall Slip on Sunday, the 30th of July. One hundred and six 
persons were killed, and one hundred and fifty injured, many of them for life. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The History of New York City has now been brought 
down to a period within the recollection of almost the 
youngest inhabitant. The limits of this work will 
not permit me to speak at length of the causes 
which have led to the commercial and local prosperity 
of New York ; the part taken by her publishing-houses 
in the dissemination of much that is good and beautiful 
and true in American literature ;* the position won for 

* Chief among these may be mentioned the house of Virtue & Yorston, 
which, though a branch of the great house of Virtue & Co., London, can 
with propriety be called thoroughly American, from the fact of its having 
been instrumental, more, perhaps, than any similar house, in making the public 
familiar with American scenery. On this account a brief sketch of this firm 
belongs to the history of the city. 

The house of Virtue & Yorston was first established in New York, in 1834, 
under the name of R. Martin & Co., and, in 1835, opened at 69 Barclay Street. 
Thence it was removed to Broadway, between Maiden Lane and Liberty, and, 
shortly after, to 26 John Street, where — Mr. Martin retiring — it became Q. 
Virtue & Co. Upon the business being removed, in 1863, to 12 Dey Street 
(see engraving on opposite page), where it still remains, the name of the firm 
was again changed to the present one of Virtue & Yorston. Mr. Yorston, the 
junior partner, having long been connected with the establishment of G. Vir- 
tue & Co., in England, was peculiarly fitted for his work. He had also, for a 
series of years, extensively canvassed for those books which have given this 
house a world-wide reputation (among these, Vietcs in Switzerland, and the 
Vernon Gallery), and was thoroughly conversant with the wants of the 
American public. 

It has been said that the house of Virtue & Yorston has always been 
peculiarly American. It was while the firm was established on Broadway that 
Bartlett prepared and finished his sketches for the great work of himself and 
N. P. Willis upon the scenery of the United States and Canada — books which 




VIRTUE & YORSTON S BUILDING 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 637 

her in letters by Sands and Halleck and Bryant and Ban- 
croft ; her School of Painting, fostered in its earlier days 
by Trumbull, Jarvis, Henry Inman* and Ingham, and in 
its later ones by Church, Bierstadt, Page, Richards, Hunt- 
ingdon, Elliott, Kensett, and others equally distinguished ; 
her School of Sculpture, represented by Brown, Thomp- 
son, and Ward ; the nature and extent of her benevo- 
lent institutions, t and the character of her " merchant 
princes." Wealth in itself is no evidence of a city's pros- 
perity, and therefore I do not refer to those of her rich 
men who are distinguished for that alone, and whose names 
will readily suggest themselves to the reader. But we, 
as citizens, do take pride in pointing to men whose 
immense wealth is guided and controlled by the prin- 
ciples of evangelical religion. Of this latter class are 
Marshall 0. Roberts, William E. Dodge, S. B. Schieffelin, 
Moses H. Grinnell — and others of similar character — men 
who are distinguished alike for their christian virtues and 
purity of life, and for their unparalleled business success. 
While, moreover, I have been compelled, as a faithful his- 
torian, to recount a few events that must ever remain foul 

still remain the best authorities on the subjects of which they treat. This 
house, also, was the first to inspire the American public with a taste for hand- 
somely illustrated works. The Great Civil War, The Battles of America by 
Sea and Land, illustrated with fifty-one steel engravings, and The History of the 
United States, with ninety steel engravings, are familiar to all lovers of Ameri- 
can history. Among the works which have been introduced by them, and 
which have tended greatly to cultivate a taste for art in this country, may 
be mentioned " The Art Journal," one of the most superb works that have 
ever been published ; " Scenery and Antiquities of Ireland," with one hundred 
and twenty engravings on steel ; " Ireland, its Scenery and Character," illustrated 
with over six hundred engravings; "Piedmont and Italy;" "Switzerland;" 
" The Beauties of the Bosphorus ;" " Scotland ;" " Gems of European Art ;" 
" Royal Gems from the Galleries of Europe ;" " The Wilkie Gallery ;" " The 
Vernon Gallery ;" and " The Turner Gallery." 

* For Personal Reminiscences of Inman see Appendix No. XIII. 

f For a full account of the aims and nature of the benevolent institutions 
of New York City, the reader is referred to a book exclusively devoted to that 
subject, published by E. B. Treat & Co. 



638 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

blots upon the otherwise bright escutcheon of the city, I 
would far rather dwell upon pleasanter themes — the 
founding of the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb,* and 
the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delin- 
quents — the establishment of that noble work, the Young 
Men's Christian Association — the course taken by the 
city during the late civil war, in which she led the van in 
every movement having for its object either the support 
of the Government or the relief of its brave defenders! — 
the dinner given to Charles Dickens, under the auspices 



* " Colonel Stone," writes Harvey P. Peet, the President of the New York 
Deaf and Dumb Asylum, to the author, " entered with characteristic zeal into 
the effort to build up a superior institution for the deaf and dumb in New 
York. To his influence is due, in large measure, my selection for the position 
of principal, and I ascribe much of the success which crowned my labors to his 
ready sympathy and encouragement, and his intelligent and zealous co-opera- 
tion. From the time I became principal of the institution, in 1831, to his 
death in 1841, he was the man, of all others, on whom I most relied for aid in 
urging the claims of our institution on the people of our city and State. He 
was constant in his attendance at our public exhibitions, ever ready and felici- 
tous in suggesting tests of the acquirements of the pupils, and ever prepared 
with appropriate anecdotes to be related by signs and translated into written 
languages, so that it always seemed that much of the popular interest of those 
occasions was owing to him. The editor of a journal of wide circulation and 
extensive influence, especially among the more wealthy and benevolent 
classes, he was eminently successful in his appeals to benevolence — and that 
because of the confidence generally felt both in his goodness of heart and in 
his discrimination 

" As a director of this institution, his quick intelligence and sound judg- 
ment enabled him to appreciate the value of suggestions for improvements, 
and his influence with the Board could always be relied on to secure their 
adoption, at the same time that his rare good sense preserved him from the 
error of some men of undoubted philanthropy, who, in a similar situation, 
have thought that theories formed in the closet might be made to overrule a 
life-long professional experience. He was a liberal donor to the library of 
the institution, and his newspaper was always sent free for the use of our 
teachers and pupils. His example and influence, moreover, obtained for it 
frequent donations of books and periodicals. The value of such gifts to an 
institution like ours needs no comment." 

f Chief among these was the Great Metropolitan Fair, held in the city in 
the spring of 1864, for the benefit of the United States Sanitary Commission, 
and which netted $1,000,000 for the relief of the soldiers — a sum exceeding that 
produced by all other fairs, for the same purpose, in the country. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



639 



of the Press, on the 18th of April, 1868 — the erection of 
the statue to Samuel F. B. Morse in the Central Park, in 
1870 — the generous welcome extended to the Russian 
Duke Alexis by the citizens of New York, in the winter 
of 1871 — and the unveiling of the Franklin statue in 
Printing House Square, on the 17th of January, 1872. 
The details of these events, however, are too well known 
to need recapitulation here. A brief retrospective glance, 




DEAF AND DUMB ASYLUM. 



or rather a comparison between old and modern New 
York, will therefore conclude this history. Nor, perhaps, 
can this be done better than by giving at length a few of 
the closing passages of Dr. Osgood's admirable address, 
delivered before the New York Historical Society, on the 
occasion of its sixty-second anniversary, in November, 
1866: 

" In 1796 taxes were light, being about one-half of one 



640 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

per cent. ; and in that year the whole tax raised was 
£7,9G8, and the whole valuation of property was £1,261,585 
— estimates that were probably about half the real value, 
so that the tax was only about one-fourth of one per cent. 
A man worth $50,000 was thought rich, and some for- 
tunes reached $250,000. Mechanics had a dollar a day 
for wages, and a genteel house rented for $350 a year, and 
$750 additional would meet the ordinary expenses of liv- 
ing for a genteel family — such as now spends from $6,000 
to $10,000, we have good reason to believe, from such 
authority as Mr. D. T. Valentine, Clerk of the Common 
Council. A good house could be bought for $3,000 or 
$4,000, and flour was four and five dollars a barrel, and 
beef ten cents a pound. 

" There were great entertainments, and men ate and 
drank freely — more freely, apparently, than now — but 
nothing of present luxury prevailed in the high classes; 
and how rare the indulgence was, is proved by the com- 
mon saying, that ' the Livingstons give champagne,' which 
marked their case as exceptional. Now, surely, a great 
many families in New York besides the Livingstons give 
champagne, and not always wisely for their own economy 
or their guests' sobriety. 

" These homely items give a familiar idea of old New 
York in 1801. We must remember that it was then a 
provincial city, and had nothing of its present back-coun- 
try connection with the West, being the virtual capital of 
the Hudson River Valley rather than that of the great 
Empire State. Buffalo, Syracuse, Utica, and the noted 
cities of Western New York were but names then, and 
Albany was of so little business note that the main com- 
munication with it was by dilatory sloops, such as Irving 
describes after his slow voyage in the craft that he long- 
waited for, and which gave him ample time to study the 
picturesque on the Hudson, with such food for his humor 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 641 

as the Captain's talk in Dutch to his crew of negro slaves. 
What a contrast with a trip now in the St. John or the 
Dean Richmond — marine palaces that float you, as in a 
dream by night, through the charmed passes of the Hud- 
son to Albany ! 

" The New York churches were strong ; but the clergy 
w r ere little given to speculative thinking, and no com- 
manding thinker appeared among them, such as abounded 
in New England. They kept the old creeds and usages 
with a strength that awed down dissent, and with a 
benign temper that conciliated favor. Latitudinarian 
tendencies were either suppressed or driven into open 
hostility with the popular creeds under deistical or atheist- 
ical teachers. In all, the congregations numbered thirty, 
and the Jews had one synagogue. Even the most radical 
congregation in the city, the Universalists, held mainly 
to the old theological views, and had only one point of 
peculiar doctrine, and even with this single exception, and 
with all the orthodox habits, they had only a lay organiza- 
tion in 1801, and were without a regular minister till 1803. 

" The Dutch Reformed, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, 
and .Methodists, numbered each five congregations ; the 
Baptists, three ; the Friends, two ; the Lutherans, two ; 
the Roman Catholics, Huguenots, Moravians, and Univer- 
salists, one each. Some writers erroneously assign seven 
churches, instead of five, to the Episcopalians in 1801, by 
claiming for them the Huguenot Church Du Saint Esprit, 
which was established in 1704, and acceded to the Episco- 
pal Church in 1804; and Zion Church, which was estab- 
lished by the Lutherans in 1801, and joined the Episcopal 
communion in 1810. 

" As far as we can judge, the Presbyterian clergy had 
most of the new American culture of the severer kind, 
and Drs. Samuel Miller and John M. Mason were the 



642 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

intellectual leaders of the New York pulpit. The only 
man to be named with them in popular influence was 
John Henry Hobart, who was ordained in 1801, conse- 
crated Bishop in 1811, and who, in spite of his extreme 
views of Episcopal prerogative, is to be named among the 
fathers of the American Church, and a good specimen of 
what old Trinity Church has done to unite patriotism 
with religion. 

" The Episcopal Church had much accomplishment in 
its clergy, and Bishop Prevoost, who received ordination 
in England, was a man of extensive knowledge ; and Dr. 
Livingston, of the Dutch Church, was a good match for 
him in learning and dignity. It is said that when these 
clerical magnates met on Sundays and exchanged saluta- 
tions, they took up the entire street, and reminded be- 
holders of two frigates under full sail, exchanging salutes 
with each other. 

* * " We may regard old New York as culminating 
in the year 1825, with the completion of the Erie Canal ; 
and that great jubilee that married this city to the mighty 
West began a new era of triumph and responsibility that 
soon proved that the bride's festival is followed by the wife's 
cares and the mother's anxieties. New York had become 
the national city, and was so for a quarter of a century 
more, and then she became cosmopolitan, European as well 
as American, and obviously one of the few leading cities of 
the world — the third city of Christendom. We may fix 
this change upon the middle of the century as well as 
upon any date, and call the time from 1850 till now her 
cosmopolitan era. The change of course, was gradual, 
and the great increase of the city dates from the close of 
the Revolutionary War and the evacuation of the city 
by the British troops. The population doubled nearly in 
the ten years after 1790, and went from 33,000 to 60,000. 
In 1825 it reached 166,085, and in 1850 rose to 515,515, 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY 



643 



All this increase could not but bring a new sense of power, 
and throughout all the bewildering maze of the old New 
York politics we can see traces of the desire of the peo- 
ple and their leaders to dispute the palm of empire with 
Virginia and its old dominion. 

• • "The introduction of gas and of the Croton 
water were grand illustrations of the power of organized 
industry, and mighty aids in throwing light, health and 
purity into the lives of the people ; and the rise of the 
great popular daily journals that almost created the na- 
tional press of America made an era in the free fellow- 
ship of public thought. The city pushed its triumphal 
march forward during that period from Bleecker Street to 
Madison Square, and vainly tried to halt its forces at 
Washington and Union Squares, or to pause long any- 
where on the way of empire. The whole period would 
make an important history of itself, and our task now is 
with the New York of to-day, as it has risen into cosmo- 
politan rank since 1850-the year which gave us a line 
of European steamers of our own, and opened the Golden 
Gate of California to our packets. 

« Look at our city now in its extent, population, wealth, 
institutions, and connections; and consider how far it is 
doin- its great work, under God's providence, as the most 
conspicuous representative of the liberty of the nineteenth 
century in its hopes and fears. You are too familiar with 
the figures and facts that show the largeness of the city 
to need any minute or extended summary of recapitula- 
tion That we are not far from a million of people on 
this'island, that began the century with sixty thousand ; 
that the valuation of property, real and personal,-- has 

"", Z~ f ™.™prtv in New York city represented by the census 

sonal estate. . .. ,, 

For the value of real and personal e S tate at the present t,me,as well as the 



g44 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

risen since 1805 from $25,000,000 to $736,988,058 ; that 
the real value of property here is about $1,000,000,000, 
or a thirtieth part of the entire property of Great Britain ; 
that our taxes within that time have risen from $127,000 
to $16,950,767, over four and a half millions more than 
our whole national expenditure in 1801 ; that our banking 
capital is over $90,000,000, and the transactions of our 
Clearing Houses, for the year ending October 1st, 1866, 
were over $29,000,000,000 ; that our Savings Banks have 
300,000 depositors and $77,000,000 of deposits; that our 
one hundred and eight Fire Insurance Companies and 
thirty-eight Fire Agencies have a capital of $47,560,000, 
and our eighteen Life Insurance Companies a capital of 
$2,938,000, whose premiums last year (1865) were nearly 
$9,000,000 ; that by the census of 1865 the number of 
dwellings was 49,844, and the value of them was 
$423,096,918; that this city, by the census of 1860, re- 
turned a larger manufacturing product than any other 
city in the Union, and more than any State, except New 
York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania — the sum total 
of $159,107,369, from raw material worth $96,177,038 in 
4,375 establishments, with 90,204 operatives, and $61,- 
212,757 capital, and manufactured nearly one-eleventh of 
the sum total of the United States manufactures in 1860, 
which was $1,885,861,676 ; that in twenty years we 
exported, from September 1st, 1846, to September 1st, 1866, 
to Europe, over 27,000,000 barrels of flour, over 164,000,- 
000 bushels of wheat, 127,000,000 bushels of corn, nearly 
5,000,000 bushels of rye ; that the receipts for customs in 
this port for 1865 were $101,772,905 ; that this city is 
the great gold market of the world, and in 1865 received 
$61,201,108, and exported over $30,000,000 abroad, and 
received in twelve years, 1854 to 1866, from San Fran- 

financial resources generally of New York city beginning of 1872 see Gover- 
nor Hoffman's Message, in Appendix No. XIV. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. £45 

cisco, $375,558,659 in gold ; that our shipping, registered 
and enrolled in 1865, amounted in tonnage to 1,223,264 
tons, and the number of arrivals of vessels in this port in 
1865 was 12,634, of these 2,078 being steamers ; that our 
exports for the year 1865 were $208,630,282, and our 
imports were $224,742,419 ; that on an average thirty- 
five tons of mail matter are received here for our citizens, 
and fifty- five tons are sent out daily ; that the average 
number of mail-bags received is three hundred and eighty- 
five, and the average number sent out is seven hundred 
and thirteen ; that within three years and a half the mail 
correspondence of our citizens has doubled ; that the num- 
ber of letters and newspapers collected by the carriers 
for the quarter ending December 31st, 1865, was over 
3,000,000, and the number delivered by them was over 
3,600,000, and the deliveries from post-office boxes for the 
same quarter were over 5,000,000 ; that the increase of 
letters is so marvelous that New York may soon rival 
London, which in 1862 received by mail 151,619,000 
letters. These and the like plain statistics are sufficient 
to prove the imperial wealth and power of New York, 
and to startle us with the problem of its prospective 
growth, when we remember that 4A per cent, increase, 
which has been generally the actual rate of increase, will 
give us a population of some 4,000,000 at the close of the 
century. 

o •:.:- u L e ^ us p ass [ n re view the industrial army of 
the city, which General Barlow, Secretary of State, allows 
me to copy from the unpublished census of 1865, and let 
us imagine it divided into regiments, thus, of about a 
thousand persons each : 



Blacksmiths, over two and one-half regiments or 

Bookbinders, over one " 

Boiler Makers, nearly one " 

Boot and Shoe Makers, over six " 

Butchers, four " 



2,621 
1,134 
910 
6,307 
3,998 



646 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



Brokers, one and one-third regiments or 

Barbers, one " 

Cabinet Makers and Dealers, two and one-half " 

Carpenters, over six " 

Cartmen and Draymen, four and one-half " 

Clerks, seventeen and one-half. " 

Clergy, nearly one-half " 

Confectioners, nearly one " 

Cooks, one " 

Coopers, one and one-half " 

Dressmakers, etc., nine and one-half " 

Drivers, nearly two " 

Engineers, over one " 

Grocers, one " 

Hat and Cap Makers, one and one-half " 

Jewelers, one " 

Laborers, twenty -one and one-quarter " 

Laundresses, three and one-half. " 

Lawyers, one and one-fourth " 

Merchants, six " 

Machinists, three " 

Masons, three " 

Milliners, one and one-third ' " 

Musicians, nearly one " 

Painters and Glaziers, four " 

Peddlers, two " 

Physicians, one and one-fourth " 

Piano Makers, nearly one " 

Plumbers, one " 

Police, one and one-half. " 

Porters, nearly three " 

Printers, two " 

Saddlers and Harness Makers, one " 

Sailors and Marines, over three " 

Servants, thirty-three " 

School Children, one hundred " 

Ship Carpenters, one " 

Stone Cutters, one and one-third " 

Tailors, ten " 

Teachers, over one and one-half " 

Tinsmiths, one " 



1,348 
1,054 
2,575 
6,352 
4,675 
17,620 

429 

756 

906 
1,401 
9,501 
1,895 
1,196 

937 
1,438 

925 
21,231 
3,590 
1,232 
5,978 
3,108 
2,757 
1,334 

809 
3,801 
1,988 
1,269 

855 
1,108 
1,546 
2,729 
2,186 

915 
3,288 
33,282 
100,000 
1,156 
1,342 
9,734 
1,608 

931 



" These occupations and others that I might present 
from the voluminous pages of the census reckon about 
150,000 of the people, and with school-children a quar- 
ter of a million.* 



* The reader must bear in mind that the above figures were taken in 1865. 
Doubtless the next census will show a larger increase. 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. (J47 

* * " The marvelous growth of population, within 
twenty years, has added half* a million to our numbers, 
and called, of course, for new measures, and ought to be 
some excuse for some mistakes and disappointments. 
The charter bears the mark of many changes, and is des- 
tined to bear more. The original charter was given by 
James II. in 168G ; was amended by Queen Anne in 
1708 ; further enlarged by George II. in 1730, into what 
is now known as Montgomery's Charter, and as such was 
confirmed by the General Assembly of the Province in 
1732, and made New York essentially a free city. The 
Mayor was appointed by the Provincial Governor and 
Council, till the Revolution ; by the State Governor and 
four members of the Council of Appointment, till 1821 ; 
by the Common Council, until 1834, and afterward by the 
people. In 1830, the people divided the Common Coun- 
cil into two boards, and in 1849 the government was 
divided into seven departments, the heads of each bein«- 
chosen by the people, and the Mayor's term of office being 
extended to two years. In 1853, the Board of Assistant 
Aldermen was changed to a Board of sixty Councilmen, 
and the term of Aldermen extended to two years. In 
1857, the number of Aldermen was reduced from twenty- 
two to seventeen, and the sixty Councilmen to twenty- 
four. 

••• * " With all the drawback of defective municipal 
government, the city is a great power in the Union, and 
gave its wealth and men to the nation. Nay, its very 
passion has been national, and the mass who deplored 
the war never gave up the Union, and might, perhaps, 
have consented to compromise rather than to disunion 
and have gone beyond any other city in clinging to the 
Union as such, whether right or wrong. The thoughtful 
mind of the city saw the true issue, and, whilst little 
radical or doctrinaire in its habit of thinking, and more 



648 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

inclined to trust to historical tendencies and institutional 
discipline for the removal of wrong than to abstract 
ideas, it did not waver a moment after the die was 
cast, and the blow of rebellion and disunion was clear. 
The ruling business powers of the city gave money and 
men to the nation, when the Government was halting 
and almost paralyzed. The first loan was hazardous, and 
the work of patriotism ; and when our credit was once 
committed, the wealth of the city was wholly at the 
service of the nation ; and the ideas of New England, and 
the enthusiasm of the West, inarched to victory with the 
mighty concurrence of the money and the men of the Em- 
pire City and State. The State furnished 473,443 men, 
or, when reduced to years of service, 1,148,604 years' ser- 
vice ; equal to three years' service of 382,868 three years' 
men; and the city alone furnished 116,382 men, equal to 
267,551 years' service, at a net cost of $14,577,214.65. 
That our moneyed men meant devoted patriotism, it is 
not safe to say of them all. In some cases, their capital 
may have been wiser and truer than the capitalist, and 
followed the great current of national life. Capital, like 
water, whose currents it resembles, has its own laws, and 
he who owns it cannot change its nature, any more than 
he who owns a water-power can change the power of the 
water. The capital of this city is bound, under God, to 
the unity of the nation, and, therefore, has to do a mighty 
part in organizing the liberty of the nineteenth century. 
Led by the' same large spirit, and true to the Union policy 
which has been the habit of the community from the 
old Dutch times, the dominant thought of our people will 
be s\ire to vindicate the favorite idea of States Rights in 
the Union against States Wrongs out of it. 

* * " And how shall we estimate the education of 
our people in its various forms ; by schools, colleges, news- 
papers, books, churches, and, not least, by this great uni- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



649 



versity of human life which is always before our^ eyes ! 
Think of the 208,309 scholars reported in 1865 in our 
public schools, and the average attendance of 86,674 in 
those schools, and over 100,000 scholars in regular at- 
tendance in all our schools, both public and private.* 
Think of our galleries of art, private and public, and our 




COOPER INSTITUTE, MERCANTILE LIBRARY, AND BIBLE nOUSE. 

great libraries and reading-rooms, like the Astor, the Mer- 
cantile, the Society, and the Cooper Institute. Consider 
the remarkable increase of private libraries, such as Dr. 

* For a History of the Schools and the Public School Society, by Hon. 
Hooper C. Van Vorst, see Appendix No. XV. 
82 



650 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

Wynne has but begun to describe in his magnificent 
volume. Think of our press, and its constant and enor- 
mous issues, especially of daily papers, which are the pe- 
culiar literary institution of our time, and alike the com- 
mon school and university of our people. Our 350 
churches and chapels, 258 of them being regular churches 
of all kinds, can accommodate about 300,000 hearers, and 
inadequate as in some respects they are, as to location 
and convenience, they can hold as many of the people as 
wish to attend church, and far more than generally attend. 
Besides our churches and chapels, we have powerful re- 
ligious instrumentalities in our religious press, and our 
city is the center of publication of leading newspapers, 
magazines, and reviews, of the great denominations of 
the country. In these organs the best scholars and 
thinkers of the nation express their thoughts in a 
way wholly unknown at the beginning of the century, 
when the religious press of the country was not appa- 
rently dreamed of. The higher class of religious and 
theological reviews that are published here are, perhaps, 
the best specimens of the most enlarged scholarship and 
severe thinking of America, and are doing much to edu- 
cate an enlightened and truly catholic spirit and fellow- 
ship. If the question is asked, in view of all these means 
of education, what kind of mind is trained up here, or 
what are the indications of our New York intelligence, it 
may not be so easy to say in full, as to throw out a hint 
or two by way of suggestion. There is, certainly, what 
may be called a New York mind and character, and there 
must be from the very nature of the case. Some charac- 
teristics must mark each community, as the results of 
birth and breeding; and however great the variety of 
elements, some qualities must predominate over others in 
the people, as in the climate and fruits of a country. 
Where two tendencies seem to balance each other for a 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 651 

time, one is sure, at last, to preponderate, and to gain 
value and power with time, and win new elements to 
itself. It is not hard to indicate the essential New York 
character from the beginning. It is positive, institu- 
tional, large-hearted, genial, taking it for granted that all 
men are not of one pattern, and that we are to live by 
allowing others to have their liberty as we have ours. 

* * " How far assimilation in its various forms of 
thought and life is to go, we can only conjecture ; for the 
process has but begun. Our community, like every other 
community, must go through three stages of development 
to complete its providential evolution : aggregation, ac- 
commodation, and assimilation. The first stage is aggre- 
gation ; and that comes, of course, with the fact of resi- 
dence. ■••■ Here we are, about a million of us, agrarea-ated 
on this healthy and charming island, and here we most 
of us expect and wish to stay. We are seeking our next 
stage, and wish accommodation not with entire success, 
and the city is distressed by prosperity, and is like an 
overgrown boy, whose clothes are too small for his limbs, 
and he waits in half-nakedness for his fitting garments. 
In some respects, the city itself is a majestic organism, 
and we have light, water, streets, and squares, much to 
our mind, always, of course, excepting the dirt. The 
scarcity of houses, the costs of rent, living, and taxation 
are grievous, and driving a large portion of our middling 
class into the country. Yet the city is full and overflow- 



* In this connection the following emigration statistics are of value. Dur- 
ing the year 1871 the number of passengers who arrived at the port of New 
York were as follows : Ireland, 50,220 ; Germany, 88,601 ; England. 51,027 ; 
Scotland, 10,154 ; Wales, 1,224; France, 4,245 ; Spain, 130; Switzerland, 2,630 ; 
Holland, 929 ; Norway, 2,718 ; Sweden, 10,749 ; Denmark, 2,210 ; Italy, 2,309 ; 
Portugal, 48 ; Belgium, 161 ; West Indies, 215 ; Nova Scotia, 53 ; Japan, 14 ; 
South America, 85 ; Canada, 68 ; China, 246 ; Sicily, 12 ; Mexico, 29 ; Russia, 
713 ; East Indies, 6 ; Turkey, 8 ; Greece, 7 ; Poland, 763 ; Africa, 8 ; Central 
America, 35 ; Australia, 22. Total arrivals, 271,067, of whom 41,428 were citi- 
zens, leaving the number of aliens 229,639. 



652 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

ing, and is likely to be. The work of assimilation is 
going on, and every debate, controversy, and party, brings 
the various elements together ; and we are seeing each 
other, whether we differ or agree. Great progress has 
been made in observing and appreciating our situation 
and population. Probably New York knows itself better 
to-day than at any time since its imperial proportions 
began to appear. In politics, police, philanthropy, educa- 
tion, and religion, we are reckoning our classes, numbers, 
and tendencies, and feeling our way towards some better 
harmony of ideas and interests. The whole population 
of the city was, by census of 1860, 813,669; and by the 
census of 1865, 726,386. The voters number 151,838; 
native, 51,500 ; foreign, 77,475. Over twenty-one years, 
they who cannot read and write are 19,199. Families 
number 148,683. Total of foreigners by census of 1860 
was 383,717 ; and by the census of 1865, 313,417. Num- 
ber of women, by census of 1865, was 36,000 more than 
of men, and of widows, over 32,000 ; being 25,000 more 
widows than widowers. The Germans, by the census of 
1860, numbered 119,984; and by the census of 1865, 
107,269. This makes up this city not the third, but the 
eighth city in the world as to German population. These 
German cities have a larger population : Berlin, Vienna, 
Breslau, Cologne, Munich, Hamburg, and Dresden. The 
Irish, by the census of 1860, number 203,700 ; and by the 
census of 1865, 261,334. 

" New York now, we believe, has a million of resi- 
dents, and either peculiar difficulties in the census com- 
mission of 1865, or peculiar influences after the war, led 
to the appearance of diminishing population. Certainly 
we have, of late, gained numbers, and have not lost in 
variety of elements to be assimilated. The national diver- 
sities are not hostile, and we are seeking out their best, 
instead of their worst, qualities. Italian art and French 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 653 

accomplishment we can appreciate without forgetting that 
we are Americans. We are discerning in our New York 
Germany something better than lager beer and Sunday 
concerts, and learning to appeal to the sterling sense and 
indomitable love of liberty of the countrymen of Luther 
and Gutenberg. The Irish among us, who make this the 
second if not the first Irish city of the world, and who 
contribute so largely to our ignorant and criminal returns, 
we are studying anew, and discerning their great service 
to industry and their great capacity for organization. We 
find among them good specimens of the blood of the Clin- 
tons and the Emmets, and are bound to acknowledge that, 
in purity, their wives and daughters may be an example 
to any class in America or Europe. Old Israel is with us 
too in force, and some thirty synagogues of Jews manifest 
the power of the oldest organized religion, and the exam- 
ple of a people that cares wholly for its own sick and 
poor ; willing to meet Christians as friends and citizens, 
and learn our religion more from its own gospel of love 
than from its old conclaves of persecution. We often see 
other types of the Oriental mind in our streets and houses, 
and it will be well for us when Asia is here represented by 
able specimens of her mystical piety, and we learn of her 
something of the secret of her repose in God, and give her 
in return something of our art of bringing the will of God 
to bear upon this stubborn earth, instead of losing sight 
of the earth in dreams of pantheistic absorption. In 
many ways the various elements are combining to shape 
our ideas and society, and fill out the measure of our 
practical education. 

" Yet, probably, the most important assimilation, as 
already hinted, is that which is going on here between the 
various elements of our American life in this mother-city, 
which is destined, apparently, to be to America what Rome 
was to the tribes that thronged to its gates. What has 



654 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

been taking place in England is taking place here, and the 
Independents and Churchmen are coming together here as 
in England since the Revolution of 1688, when extremes 
were greatly reduced, and the independency of Milton and 
Cromwell began to reappear in combination with the church 
ways of Clarendon and Jeremy Taylor. The most signifi- 
cant part of the process is the union here of Puritan indi- 
vidualism and its intuitive thinking and bold ideas, with 
New York institutionalism, and its organizing method and 
objective mind. The Yankee is here, and means to stay, 
and is apparently greatly pleased with the position and 
reception, and enjoys the fixed order and established paths 
of his Knickerbocker hosts. It is remarkable that whilst 
New England numbered only some 20,000, or 10,517 of 
her people here, which is 7,000 less than the nations of 
Old England in the city, by the census of 1860, they are 
so well received and effective, and fill so many and impor- 
tant places in business and the professions. By the census 
of 1865, New York city has 17,856 natives of New Eng- 
land, and 19,699 natives of Old England; a balance of 
1,843 in favor of Old England. Yet, in the State at large, 
the result is different, for the population numbers 166,038 
natives of New England, and 95,666 natives of Old Eng- 
land ; a balance of 70,372 in favor of New England. It is 
curious to note that the city had only 825 native Dutch 
in 1865, and the State 4,254. In a philosophical point of 
view, it is memorable that the Puritan mind is now 
largely in power, even in our church establishments that 
so depart from New England independency, and the lead- 
ing Presbyterian and Episcopal preachers and scholars are 
largely from the Puritan ranks. Our best informed scholar 
in the philosophy of religion, who holds the chair of theo- 
logical instruction in the Presbyterian Seminary, is a New 
England Congregationalist, transplanted to New York. 
Nay, even the leading, or at least the most conspicuous, 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 655 

Roman Catholic theologian of New York is the son of a 
Connecticut Congregationalist minister, and carries the 
lineal blood and mental habit of his ancestor, Jonathan 
Edwards, into the illustration and defense of the Roman 
creed. It is worthy of note that our most philosophical 
historian is the son of a Massachusetts Congregational 
minister, and a lover of the old scholastic thinking, and a 
champion of the ideal school of Edwards and Channing 
in its faith and independency ; author, too, of perhaps the 
most bold and characteristic word of America to Europe, 
the oration of February 22d, 18G6, that was the answer of 
our New World to British Toryism and Romish Obscu- 
rantism, whether to the Premier's mock neutral mani- 
festo or the Pope's Encyclical Letter. 

* * "It is the province of the New York Historical 
Society to keep up the connection of the New York of the 
past with the New York of to-day, and zealously to guard 
and interpret all the historical materials that preserve the 
continuity of our public life. It is to be lamented that so 
little remains around us to keep alive the memory of the 
ancient time ; and everything almost that we see is the 
work of the new days. Sad it is that all the old neigh- 
borhoods are broken up, and the old houses and churches 
are mostly swept away by our new prosperity. But how 
impressive are our few landmarks ! We all could join in 
the Centennial Jubilee of St. Paul's, and wish well to its 
opening future. So, too, we can greet our neighbors of the 
John-street Church in their Centennial, and thank God for 
the one hundred years of New York Methodism. Who of us 
can pass without reflection by the old Middle Dutch Church, 
now our Post-office, in Nassau Street, without recalling the 
years and events that have passed since 1729, when it was 
opened for worship in the Dutch tongue 1 In March, 1764, 
the preaching there was, for the first time, in English ; and 
in August, 18-14, Dr. De Witt gave an outline of its his- 



656 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



tory and pronounced the benediction in Dutch ; and that 
old shrine of the Knickerbockers is now the busy brain 
of the nation and the world, and receives and transmits 
some forty tons of thought a day. What would one of 
those old Rip Van Winkles of 1729 have thought, if he 




HISTORICAL SOCIETY BUILDING AND ST. MARK'S CHURCH. 

could have prolonged his Sunday afternoon nap in one of 
those ancient pews till now, and awoke to watch the day's 
mail, with news by the last steamers and the Atlantic 
cable for all parts of the great continent? Our Broad- 



HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 657 

way, ever changing, and yet the same old road, is perhaps 
our great historical monument, and the historical street 
of America by eminence. All the men of our history have 
walked there, and all nations and tribes have trodden its 
stones and dust. In our day what have we seen there — 
what processions, armies, pageants ! What work would 
be more an American as well as New York history than 
Broadway, described and illustrated with text and por- 
traits from the time when Stuyvesant astonished the 
Dutch with his dignity to the years that have brought 
the hearse of our murdered President* and the carriage of 
his successor along its stately avenue ? Thank heaven for 
old Broadway, noble type of American civilization, from 
the Battery to Harlem River, and may the ways of the 
city be as straight as the lines of its direction and as true 
to the march of the Providence of God.t 

* •:.:• a ^yj^t the orator who ushers in the twentieth 
century here, or who celebrates your one hundredth anni- 
versary, may have to say as he reviews the nineteenth 
century, I will not undertake to say. What we should 
wish and pray for is clear. Clear that we should wish the 
new times to keep the wisdom and virtue of the old with 

* Alluding to the funeral obsequies of President Lincoln, which consisted 
of the remains of the President being carried in procession through Broadway 
on the 25th of April, 1865, on their way from Washington to their final resting- 
place in Springfield, Illinois. The remains reached the city the preceding day, 
and after lying in state in the City Hall, which had been draped for the occa- 
sion, the city of New York took its final leave of all that was mortal of Presi- 
dent Lincoln. " The remains were escorted to the railroad depot by a procession 
nearly five miles in length, composed of a military force of upward of sixteen 
thousand men, together with numerous civic officers and societies. Last in the 
procession marched two thousand colored citizens. Every window and balcony 
was filled ; every house was shrouded in funeral drapery ; while along the 
whole line the streets were thronged with sincere mourners. A large assem- 
blage met in the afternoon of the same day in Union Square, to listen to a 
funeral oration from Hon. George Bancroft, and an eulogy from William C. 
Bryant." 

f For an article upon " New York Society in the Olden Time," by the Right 
Rev. Bishop Kip, see Appendix No. XVI. 



G58 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

all the new light and progress ; clear that after our trying 
change from the old quarters to the new, we may build a 
nobler civilization on the new base, and so see better days 
than ever before ; that the great city that shall be here 
should be not only made up of many men but of true 
manhood, and be not only the capital of the world but 
the city of God ; its great park the central ground of 
noble fellowship ; its great wharves and markets the seat 
of honorable industry and commerce ; its public halls the 
head-quarters of free and orderly Americans ; its churches 
the shrines of the blessed faith and love that join man with, 
man, and give open communion with God and heaven." 



THE END. 



APPENDIXES. 



APPENDIX I. 



THE CONSTITUTION AND NOMINATIONS OF THE SUBSCRIBERS 



TONTINE COFFEE-HOUSE.* 



CONSTITUTION, &c. 

Whereas the several persons whose names are hereunto subscribed and 
set, have, at their joint expense, purchased certain lots of land in the Second 
Ward of the city of New York, and erected a building thereon, called the 
Tontine Coffee-house, to be kept and used as a coffee-house in the said city of 
New York, and have furnished the same for that purpose, and have taken con- 
veyances for the same premises in the names of John Broome, Gulian Ver- 
planck, John Delafield, William Laight, and John Watts, five of the said sub- 
scribers, in joint tenancy, as trustees for themselves and the other subscribers ; 
and. whereas the property in the said lands, and building, and furniture is 
divided into two hundred and three shares, which belong to the persons whose 
names are hereunto subscribed and set, in the proportion mentioned opposite 
to their respective names ; and the owner of each of the said shares, or his 
executors, administrators, or assigns, is to have and receive the profits of such 
share during the natural life of the person named and described, opposite to 
his name, as his nominee for such share, and to which description such owner 
has subscribed his name ; and, upon the death of any such nominee, the share, 
which depends upon the life of such nominee, is to cease, and the whole profits 
of the said premises are continually to go to, and be equally divided among, such 
of the said owners whose nominees shall be living on the first day of May in 
every year, until the said nominees shall by death be reduced to seven, when 
the whole of the said property is to vest in the persons then entitled to the 
shares, standing in the names of the seven surviving nominees ; and the trus- 
tees, or their heirs, in whom the fee of the said land and premises shall then 
be vested, are then to convey the same to the persons so entitled in fee, equally 

* New York : Printed in the year 1796. 



2 APPENDIX I. 

to be divided between them ; therefore, in order to carry the said plan into exe- 
cution, it is hereby agreed, by and between the said owners, as follows, that is 
to say : — 

First — That the said building shall be used and kept as a coffee-house, and 
for no other use or purpose, until the number of the said nominees shall be 
reduced to seven. 

Secondly — That Comfort Sands, Cornelius Ray, Anthony L. Bleecker, James 
Tillery, and William Henderson, who have been chosen and appointed a com- 
mittee for that purpose, shall settle all the accounts of the said purchase and 
building as soon as conveniently may be, and divide the surplus, it' any, of the 
subscription money paid by the present owners, and the net profits already 
arisen among the said owners, in proportion to their respective shares, and take 
care of and manage the said business for the interest of the said owners, and 
receive the rents and profits of the said premises, until the first clay of June 
next, and shall then divide the net profits thereof between such of the said 
owners whose nominees shall then be living, in proportion to their respective 
shares. 

Thirdly — That it shall and may be lawful for the owners of the said several 
shares, for the time being, to meet together yearly and every year, at the said 
coffee house, on the first Monday in June, in every year, at eleven of the clock 
in the forenoon, and then and there, by a majority of the votes of the persons 
- i met, to elect and choose five of the said owners, resident in the city of New 
York, as a committee to manage the said business for one year ; and that the 
committee for the time being, or the major part of them, or the survivors or 
survivor of them, or the major part of the survivors of them, shall always 
superintend such election, and make return of, and give notice thereof, to the 
persons elected. But no person shall have nine than one vote at such election, 
although he may be entitled to more than one of the said shares. 

Fourthly — That every such committee, hereafter to he chosen as aforesaid, 
shall have the care and management of the said house and premises for the 
said owners, and take care of, and keep the same in repair, and make leases 
thereof, as occasion may require, which leases shall he confirmed, when neces- 
sary, by the persons in whom the fee of the said land may be vested. The com- 
mittee shall also settle and adjust the accounts of the preceding committee, 
and shall receive the rents and profits of the premises aforesaid, and divide 
the net proceeds thereof, on the second Tuesday in May, in every year, between 
such of the owners of the said several shares, whose nominees shall be living 
on the first day of the same month of May, in the same year, in proportion to 
their respective shares. 

Fifthly — That, until the said nominees shall be reduced to seven, as afore- 
said, each of the said shares shall be considered as personal estate, and upon 
the death of the owner, if not disposed of by him, shall go to his executors or 
administrators, and it shall be lawful fir any person entitled to such share to 
sell and transfer the same to any other person ; but all such transfers shall be 
in writing, and signed by the person making the same, in the presence of, and 
attested by, two witnesses at least, and shall he registered in a book to be kept 
for that purpose by the said committee, and no transfer shall be valid until the 
same shall be registered, as aforesaid. And all such transfers shall be in the 
following form, to wit : 



APPENDIX I. 3 

Know all men by these presents, that I (here insert the name and addition 
of the owner, and if such owner claims as devisee, executor, or administrator, 
insert such description) do hereby, for value received, sell, grant, and convey 
(here insert the name and addition of the purchaser) my share in the New York 
Tontine Coffee-house, to which I am entitled during the natural life of (here 
insert the name and description of the nominee) and all my rights, title, inter- 
est, claim, and demand, of, in, and to the same. In witness whereof, I have 
hereunto set my hand and seal, this day of , in the year of 

our Lord one thousand 

And no person claiming any share as devisee, executor, or administrator 
shall be entitled to the profits thereof, or to sell or transfer the same, or to vote 
in respect thereof, until the will and letters testamentary, or letters of admin- 
istration, by which such claim shall be made, shall be recorded in the proper 
office in the State of New York, and a registry thereof entered in the said book 
of registry of transfers by the said committee. 

Sixtltly — That the present trustees, in whom the fee simple of the said land 
and premises is now vested, shall, as soon as conveniently may be. execute such 
declaration or deed as counsel shall advise, as necessary and proper, to answer 
the several purposes aforesaid. 

Seventhly — That when the said trustees, in whom the fee simple of the said 
land and premises is vested, shall by death be reduced to less than three, the 
said committee, fir the time being, shall give notice thereof in at least two of 
the newspapers printed in this city, and request the then owners of the several 
shares to meet together at the said Coffee-house, at a certain time therein to be 
mentioned, not less than ten days from the first publication thereof, to nomi- 
nate and elect five other persons to be trustees for them ; and such five persons 
as shall at such meeting be elected, by a majority of the votes of the said own- 
ers so met, shall be trustees for the whole of the said owners. And the sur- 
vivors or survivor of the present trustees shall thereupon, on demand, in due 
form of law, convey the said land and premises, with the appurtenances, unto 
such new trustees, and the survivors and survivor of them, and the heirs of 
such survivor, upon the like trusts as aforesaid, with a covenant therein to be 
inserted, that, if such new trustees shall, by death, be reduced to less than three 
before the said nominees shall by death be reduced to seven, that then the sur- 
vivors or survivor will, in due form of law, convey the said land and premises, 
with the appurtenances, unto five other trustees, to be chosen in the manner 
aforesaid, upon the like trusts as aforesaid, and with the like covenant, to be 
therein inserted. 

Eighthly — That when the said nominees shall by death be reduced to seven, 
then the trustees, or their heirs, in whom the fee simple of the said land and 
premises shall be vested, shall, in due form of law, convey the same land and 
premises, with the appurtenances, and all their estate and interest therein, to 
the persons then entitled to the shares standing in the names of the seven sur 
viving nominees, and to the heirs and assigns of the persons so entitled forever 
equally to be divided between them. 

Done in the city of New York, the fourth day of June, in the year of oui 
Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety-four. 



APPENDIX II 



RICHMOND HILL. 



BY GENERAL PROSPER M. WETMORE. 



The memories clustering round the spot once known by this name have 
not lost their freshness in the passing away of two generations of our people ; 
while its many living traditions of social and political events extend over a 
space of time fast approaching the close of a century. 

This princely estate, so well known to our elderly citizens, was for many 
years one of the chief attractions of the suburban scenery of New York. Situ- 
ated on a commanding eminence, surrounded by groves of ancient trees, a short 
distance west of the centre of the island, it extended, through intervening 
vales, to the shores washed by the waters of the Hudson. The hand of Art and 
the guidance of taste had adorned its broad expanse of cultivated grounds, 
with all the luxuriance of gardens, arbors, and shrubberies ; while Nature 
lent to the perfection of the landscape her choicest productions and the ripen- 
ing influences of her beneficence. The chequered fortunes of the owners of 
this beautiful region were not more remarkable than the conflicting conditions 
which followed the title to the estate, as it passed into the hands of its succes- 
sive proprietors. About ten years anterior to the Revolution, an English gen- 
tleman, Major Abraham Mortier, at one period of his life a Commissary of the 
English Army, acquired possession of the principal part of this eligible tract 
of land, which was then held under grant from the Colonial Government, by 
the Episcopal Church of the City of New York. This religious organization, 
afterwards under the sanction of law, adopted the more definite title of 
" Trinity Church." 

The grant to the Church embraced immense possessions within the bounds 
of the rising city, a goodly share of which is still retained under the same 
authority. Having secured from the Church a lease of the property for a long 
extended term of years, the new proprietor erected, on a conspicuous eminence, 
a spacious and imposing edifice, to which, with a natural fondness foT 
familiar English names, he gave the designation of "Richmond Hill." He 
speedily commenced, on a scale of generous expenditure, to improve and orna- 



APPENDIX II 5 

merit its grounds. This disposition, on his part, growing with the opening 
attractions of his new home, continued until the outbreak of hostilities, or, 
according to the local traditions, until his premature death. While the property 
remained in his possession, Major Mortier devoted much of his time and no 
small share of his fortune to the embellishment of his highly-prized acqui- 
sition.* 

At the commencement of active hostilities, in the neighborhood of New 
York, under the tenure of military power, General Washington, with his fam- 
ily, were, for a portion of the year 1776, the occupants of Richmond Hill. It 
was during this period that Colonel Aaron Burr was appointed an aid with the 
rank of major, on the staff of the Commander-in-chief, and, thus early, became 
personally acquainted with the advantages and attractions of the place. It is 
not within the design of this brief sketch to follow the successive changes of 
title and possession, between the departure of Mortier and the removal of 
Washington's headquarters from Richmond Hill to the Roger Morris House, 
near the Point of Rocks. The movement of the American forces was con- 
sequent on the subjugation of the city by the British troops, and preceded 
only, by a short time, the capture of Fort Washington. During the seven 
years' occupation of the Island of New York, little is known of its internal con- 
dition ; but, undoubtedly, some superior British officer enjoyed the advantages 
and administered the unpaid-for hospitalities of Richmond Hill. The year 
1783 witnessed the departure of the unsuccessful supporters of royalty and the 
gradual return of citizens to the peaceable resumption of their property and 
rights. The legal tenure of the rights held under the Church-lease to the 
Richmond Hill property was maintained, and the buildings and improvements 
were not disturbed nor injured while in adverse occupancy. During the first 
year of the Government, under the newly-adopted Constitution, while President 
Washington was living, with some display of courtly splendor, at the Franklin 
mansion, on the corner of Pearl and Cherry Streets, John Adams, of Massachu- 
setts, the first Vice-President, occupied the house and grounds of Richmond 
Hill. How much the delightful surroundings of that beautiful residence were 
enjoyed by its inmates, at this period, is pleasantly depicted in the letters of 
Mrs. Abigail Adams, the wife of the Vice-President. She writes to her rela- 
tive, Mrs. Shaw, in the following glowing terms : 

" Richmond Hill, N. Y., 

" 27th September, 1789. 

" I write to you, my dear Sister, not from the disputed banks of the Poto- 
mac, the Susquehanna, or the Delaware, but from the peaceful borders of 
the Hudson ; a situation where the hand of Nature has so lavishly displayed 
her beauties, that she has left scarcely anything for her handmaid, Art, to per- 
form. 

" The house in which we reside is situated upon a hill, the avenue to which 
is interspersed with forest-trees, under which a shrubbery,- rather too luxu- 
riant and wild, has taken shelter, owing to its having been deprived, by death, 
some years since, of its original proprietor, who kept it in perfect order. In 



* This property is traced on the map, published from a survey made, in 1776, by Major 
Montresor. 

84 



6 APPENDIX II. 

front of the house the noble Hudson rolls its majestic waves, bearing upon his 
bosom innumerable small vessels, which are constantly forwarding the rich 
products of the neighboring soil to the busy hand of a more extensive com- 
merce. Beyond the Hudson rises to onr view the fertile country of the Jer- 
seys, covered with a golden harvest and pouring forth plenty, like the cornu- 
copia of Ceres. On the right hand, an extensive plain presents us with a view 
of fields, covered with verdure, aud pastures full of cattle. On the left, the city 
opens upon us, intercepted only by clumps of trees and some rising ground 
which serves to heighten the beauty of the scene, by appearing to conceal a part. 
In the background is a large flower-garden, enclosed with a hedge, and some 
very handsome trees. Ou one side of it a grove of pines and oaks, fit ior cou- 
tein illation. 

" 'In this path, 
IIow long soe'er the wanderer roves, each step 
Shall wake Iresh beauties ; each last point present 
A different picture, new, and each the same. 1 

" If my days of fancy and romance were not past, I could find here an ample 
field for indulgence ; yet, amidst these delightful scenes of Nature, my heart 
pants for the society of my dear relatives and friends, who are too far removed 
from me." 

In another letter, written a year later, to her friend, Mr. Brand-Hollis, liv- 
ing in England, she repeats and enlarges her description of the beauties of the 
Bcenery by which she was surrounded at her delightful residence at Richmond 
Hill, and when the removal of the Government from New York to Philadelphia 
required the official families to change their residences, the regrets of Mrs 
Adams were feelingly expressed. 

In the year 1797, this property was in the possession of an eminent foreign 
gentleman by the name of Temple ; and a good deal of public excitement was 
awakened by an extensive robbery committed on the premises, the perpetra- 
tors of which were never discovered. Just at this period the Richmond Hill 
estate came into the possession of Aaron Burr, by whom it was retained, as a 
country residence, for about fifteen years. 

Colonel Burr retired from the army, in consequence of greatly impaired 
health, some years before the Revolutionary contest had ceased. He had 
entered, actively, into the practice of the law, at New York, in which he had 
already acquired no little distinction elsewhere. Subsequently elected to the 
Senate of the United States, and, at the close of that service, elevated to the 
office of Vice-President, much of his time was necessarily spent at the seat of 
government ; but all of his home life was passed in the society of his family, 
at Richmond Hill. While his business offices and temporary lodging apart- 
ments were in the crowded city, his hours of enjoyment and the brilliant 
scenes of his social entertainments always found him at this chosen spot. It 
was here that he received, with fitting honors, the distinguished strangers, 
from every land, who came to study the features of the country and to estimate 
the characters of the people, newly entering into the family of nations. Cer- 
tainly, no man of that day was better qualified to perform the duty he had 
taken upon himself. Born, as it seemed, to adorn society ; rich in knowledge ; 
brilliant and instructive in conversation; gifted with a charm of manner that 



APPENDIX II. < 

was almost irresistible ; lie was the idol of all who came within the magic 
sphere of his friendship and his social influence. In his immediate family 
circle were centered his purest joys, his highest hopes. His married life had 
been one of uninterrupted happiness, save from the declining health of his 
affectionate wife. The correspondence between them, which is extant, affords 
undeniable evidence of the truth of these statements. His daughter, Theodo- 
sia, after the death of her mother, was the delight of her father's heart, the 
chosen companion of his hours of ease and relaxation. She conducted, with 
rare tact and discretion, the generous hospitality of the Richmond Hill estab- 
lishment ; and the felicity of her management and the charm of her manner 
were, frequently, the topic of admiration and commendation in the best social 
assemblages of those happy days. 

Among the frequent guests at Burr's house, during this period of his high- 
est prosperity and popularity, were the accomplished Volney, the courtly 
Talleyrand, and the princely-born Louis Philippe. Expatriated, under the 
misrule of the French Revolution, these were all of a class of men whom Burr 
delighted to entertain, and who could appreciate and enjoy the elegant hospi- 
tality which was extended to them. About this time, also, while the Vice- 
President was at his post of duty, in Washington, he requested his daughter, 
whom he had left in charge of his country establishment, and who was then 
fourteen years of age, to give a dinner-party at Richmond Hill, to the celebrated 
Indian Chief, Brant.* 

The years that were passed (with occasional absences on public duty) at 
Richmond Hill, in the companionship of his wife and daughter, comprised the 
six years of allotted service in the Senate and the four years' incumbency of 
the office of Vice-President of the United States. In that brief period of time 
culminated, declined, and passed away, forever, the fame, distinction, and hap- 
piness of Aaron Burr. 

There is no parallel in personal history for such a fate, so sudden aud so 
irreparable, as that which befell the once honored, respected, admired, and 
feared master of Richmond Hill. 

As a brave and faithful soldier of the Revolution, he was without fear and 
without reproach. In his first battle, he was chosen to lead the forlorn hope, 
at the assault of Quebec ; and, while under fire, he bore the body of Montgom- 
ery from the crimsoned snow-bank where he fell. Chosen by Washington to 
fill the responsible post of aid, he remained in that confidential position until 
he voluntarily accepted the office of the like distinction by the side of Putnam ; 
and thence only changed his line of duty to accept the more active service in 
the command of a regiment. Distinguished in the arduous duties of maintain- 
ing the integrity of " the neutral ground " of Westchester, his conduct won 
the admiration of every judicious commander. Successful whenever he led an 
independent command, on the disastrous field of Monmouth he made the final 
sacrifice of his health and ambition to the cause of his country. Retiring from 
duty, as an invalid, he declined to accept the proffered privilege of leave from 
active service with continued compensation, and returned to the walks of pri- 
vate life with shattered health, but with few of the honors and none of the 
rewards of his faithful service. 

* For an account of this dinner, and also for a letter written by Burr to his daughter, 
introducing the Chief, Brant, to her, see Chapter VI.. Part III. 



» APPENDIX II. 

This is the brief, but true, military record of Aaron Burr. Is there nothing 
in such a record to justify the hope of a memory worthy to be cherished, rather 
than to meet the execration of undying enmity ? One act of Burr's life made 
him an outcast, not alone from the society he had adorned and honored, but 
from the country which had given him birth, and in support of whose liberties 
lie had freely periled his life. Of the great host of enemies, so suddenly 
raised up, and who so relentlessly followed the footsteps of the stricken man, 
how many were there who should have shuddered with the infamy of casting 
the first stone ? 

At the closing of his official duties, as Vice-President, Burr followed out a 
long and well considered purpose of opening a justifiable enterprise for the 
conquest of one of the provinces of Southern America. Through the perfidy 
of one or more of his trusted agents, he was arrested, imprisoned, and tried for' 
treason, in the city of Richmond, Virginia. After months of enforced delay, 
for sinister purposes, the trial was held before the most distinguished of all 
the Chief-Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States ; and while the 
whole power of the Government of the nation was arrayed against the perse- 
cuted defendant, under the advice and ruling of John Marshall, he was honor- 
bly acquitted and restored to all the rights of a citizen. And yet there are 
men who continue to write and speak of Aaron Burr as a traitor ! 

How many years was he in advance of that glorious enterprise which 
secured Texas as one of the States of the American Union ! His subsequent 
career was one of long-continued and almost crushing sorrows. The sad 
sufferings which his misfortunes had cast upon his noble-minded daughter, 
Theodosia, who had previously become the wife of Governor Alston, of South 
Carolina ; the melancholy death of her only child ; and the loss of the devoted 
mother, on her voyage to meet and welcome home her beloved father, after his 
long years of absence abroad, altogether make one of the most pathetic stories 
in the whole range of personal literature. This painful episode has led our 
reflections far away from the subject of Richmond Hill, and we now again 
take up the thread of our history. Before Burr's loss of fortune he had con- 
templated parting with this property, and had opened negotiations with a 
wealthy capitalist to that end. Having suddenly determined to visit Europe, 
in the hope and expectation of obtaining pecuniary assistance in the prosecu- 
tion of his Mexican enterprise, he departed, leaving his business affairs in a 
condition of irretrievable embarrassment. The necessary consequence was, 
that the Richmond Hill property was sold, to satisfy the most pressing of his 
creditors, for a very small part of its actual value ; and that, finally, the 
larger portion became incorporated with the vast estate of Mr. John Jacob 
Astor. A part of the property held by Burr was not embraced under the 
Church-lease, but had been purchased from other parties ; and so much as had 
been thus acquired, with a title in fee, had been disposed of some years prior 
to the ultimate catastrophe from which there was no recovery. 

While writing these lines, we have lying before us an attested copy of a 
conveyance, with an attested map of the premises attached, from Aaron Burr 
to John Jacob Astor bearing date the eighteenth of November, 1803. This 
instrument purports to convey a piece of land known as the " Triangle," com- 
prising about forty city lots, bounded by the line of the Church property, and 
is conveyed, in fee, to the purchaser. The location of this section is indicated, 



APPENDIX II. y 

by its boundaries, on Downing, Bedford, and Village Streets — the latter name 
being now obsolete. 

It is a significant fact, in relation to Burr's well-known business relations, 
that this piece of property was conveyed, subject to an existing mortgage, in 
favor of the Manhattan Company. We have also before us an original instru- 
ment, certified of record, by T. Wortman, clerk of the city and county of New 
York, purporting to be a mortgage executed by Timothy and Mary Green to 
Aaron Burr, covering certain lots, formerly part of the estate of said Burr, and 
which had previously been part of the estate of Elbert Herring, and was 
bounded by property held by Burr, under a Church-lease. This mortgage 
bears date the twenty-third day of October, 1802 ; and appears to have been 
assigned, on the same day, to the Manhattan Company. These ancient docu- 
ments are only interesting to antiquaries in search of disputed or forgotten 
boundaries, and were found, with many other unconsidered trifles, among the 
multifarious articles seeking a purchaser in the stock of a dealer in old paper. 
They are entirely at the service of any person who can find them of any value. 
Thus passed away, into other hands, the possessions once held and dearly 
prized by the dwellers in the spacious halls and on the broad lands of Rich- 
mond Hill. From time to time, between the years 1806 and 1818, the prem- 
ises, diminished in size and attraction, were noticed in the public papers to be 
rented for private residences; and thus, as time passed on, the fortunes of 
Richmond Hill declined. 

The writer remembers the place well. In the year 1813 the noble mansion 
remained in good preservation, with its broad entrance, under a porch of 
imposing height, supported by tall columns, with balconies fronting the rooms 
of the second story, and with an aspect of distinction altogether beyond the 
ordinary private dwellings of that day. The outer entrance of the premises, 
at the period mentioned, was through a spacious gateway, placed between 
highly ornamented columns, at the then termination of McDougal Street, 
about two hundred feet north of Spring Street. The grounds at that time 
had been reduced in size, by the interposing barriers of newly opened streets, 
and no longer extended to the river. The beautiful piece of water, long known 
as " Burr's Pond," remained intact, with a full supply of the needed element, 
which, in winter, gave excitement and enjoyment to all the noisy urchins 
fond of the exercise of skating. On this point the writer can speak from per- 
sonal knowledge. " Burr's Pond," so far as its exact location can now be 
traced, must have been on or near the piece of ground known as " the Trian- 
gle," as it has been followed to a point where it meets the junction of Bedford 
and Downing Streets. 

In the year 1820 the final excavation of the high ground was completed, 
and in 1822 a public garden was opened, and soon became a popular resort for 
the neighboring inhabitants, to whom refreshments were served from the main 
building. A turtle feast became, also, a standard entertainment, and was 
frequently presented to an appreciative public by a society gifted with a 
knowledge of such culinary accomplishments. 

Having thus passed through all the mutations of city suburban property, 
these premises followed the fortunes of other localities ; the street commis- 
sioner made his influence felt; streets and avenues were opened; Luild'ngs 
were demolished or removed ; profile maps came into vogue ; hills disappeared 



10 APPENDIX II. 

and valleys were filled ; until at length the old Richmond Hill mansion found 
itself shorn of all its grandeur, stripped of its verdant groves, despoiled of its 
gardens and lawns, sitting sadly, far beneath its former altitude, at the noisy 
and somewhat unsavory corner of Charlton and Varick Streets. Its stately 
portals no longer opened wide to welcome the entrance of distinguished guests 
from foreign lands, or the brilliant crowds who came to mingle in the gay 
receptions of joyous and sparkling Theodosia. Poor Theodosia ! whose grave 
had been made for her beneath the surging billows of the ocean. 

Alas ! for the changes wrought by the relentless hand of Time ! The 
tenacity of life with the old mansion was remarkable ; and, after the gardens 
had ceased to be remunerative and other similar attractions had failed, a new 
and more pretentious effort was made to embellish its history and to keep 
alive, a little longer, the distinction attached to its name. On its new foundation 
the house was placed with its front, still wearing the adornments of columns 
and balconies, some twenty feet withdrawn from Varick Street, extending along 
the line of Charlton Street. About the year 1831 the premises were leased 
and a new building constructed, in the rear, connected with the principal 
edifice and running back about fifty feet, with the view to form a dramatic 
temple, under the title of " The Richmond Hill Theatre." When completed, 
the management of the establishment was entrusted to Mr. Richard Russell, 
an experienced and respectable member of the theatrical profession. 

Shortly before the opening night the manager invited, by public notice and 
the offer of a prize, the co-operation of our city's literati in the production of a 
Poetical Address for the occasion. The committee selected to award the prize sat 
in one of the reception chambers of the old time-honored mansion. It was an 
afternoon to be remembered. As the twilight deepened into the evening, the 
shadows of departed hosts and long-forgotten guests seemed to hover round 
the dilapidated halls and dismantled chambers. Silence and a saddening 
gloom weighed heavily on the spirits of the selected party. But the lights 
came, the feeling of depression soon passed away, and the disordered fancy 
was roused to resume the duty of the hour. 

Mr. Gulian C. Verplanck was chosen to break the seals of a couple of dozen 
envelopes. The writer of this paper was permitted to be a sharer in the cere- 
monies. As the poems were read, or glanced at, some few were placed on the 
right hand, but much the larger number on the left. Of course there could be 
but little hesitation in making up the final verdict. The successful competitor 
bore the name of Fitz-Greene Halleck ; and, with these pages, the original 
manuscript of the following beautiful poem is placed in the hands of the editor 
of The Historical Magazine : 

PRIZE POEM 

WRITTEN FOR THE OPENING OF THE RICHMOND HILL THEATRE. 

Where dwells the Drama's Spirit ?— not alone 
Beneath the palace-roof, beside the throne, 
In learning's cloisters, friendship's festal bowers. 
Arts pictur'd halls, or triumph's laurel'd towers— 
Where'er man's pulses beat, or passions play, 
She joys to smile or sigh his thoughts away, 
Crowd times and scenes within her ring of power, 
And teach a life's experience in an hour. 



APPENDIX II. 

To night she greets, for the first time, our dome, 
Her latest, may it prove her lasting home, 
And we, her messengers, delighted stand, 
The summoned Ariels of her mystic wand, 
To ask your welcome. . . Be it yours to give 
Bliss to her coming hours, and bid her live 
Within these walls, new-hallowed in her cause, 
Long in the nurturing warmth of your applause. 

'Tis in the public smiles, the public loves, 

His dearest home, the actor breathes aud moves; 

Your plaudits are, to us, and to our art, 

As is the life-blood to the human heart ; 

And every power that bids the leaf be green 

In nature, acts. on this her mimic scene. 

Our sunbeams are the sparklings of glad eyes, 

Our winds, the whisper of applause that flies 

From lip to lip, the heart-born laugh of glee, 

And sounds of cordial hands that ring out merrily ; 

And heaven's own dew falls on us in the tear 

That woman weeps o'er sorrows pictur'd here, 

When crowded feelings have no words to tell 

The might, the magic of the actor's spell. 

These have been ours, and do we hope in vain, 
Here, oft, and deep, to feel them ours again ? 
iSo— while the weary heart can find repose 
From its own pains in fictions, joys, or woes ; 
While there are open lips and dimpled cheeks 
When music breathes, or wit or humor speaks; 
While Shakspeare's master spirit can call up 
Noblest and holiest thoughts, and brim the cup 
Of life with bubbles bright as happiness, 
Cheating the willing bosom into bliss; 
So long will those who, in their spring of youth, 
Have listened to the drama's voice of truth ! 
Marked in her scenes the manners of their age, 
And gathered knowledge for a wider stage ; 
Come here to speed with smiles life 's summer years, 
And melt its winter's snow with warmest tears : 
And younger hearts, when ours are hushed and cold, 
Be happy here, as we have been of old. 

Friends of the stage ! who hail it as the shrine 
Where music, paintinar, poetry entwine 
Their wedded garlands, whence their blended power 
Refines, exalts, ennobles, hour by hour, 
The spirit of the land ; and, like the wind, 
Unseen, but felt, bears on the bark of mind ; 
To you. the hour that consecrates this dome 
Will call up dreams of prouder hours to come, 
When some creatine Poet, born your own. 
May waken here the drama's loftiest tone, 
Through after years to echo loud and long; 
A Shakspeare of the west— a star of Bong ! 
Brightening your own blue skies with living fire, 
A!l°climes to gladden, and all tongues inspire. 
Far as beneath the heaven, by sea winds tanned, 
Floats the tree banner of your native land. 



11 



12 APPENDIX II. 

However promising may have been the opening of the theatrical specula- 
tion, it did not, in the end, restore the fortunes or rescue the name of the 
Richmond Hill House. The situation was not well adapted for such a place of 
amusement, and its existence was not a protracted one. 

What is known as " the regular drama " — tragedies and comedies — failing 
to attract sufficient support, an operatic company was called into requisition. 
Some well-appointed musical entertainments were offered, but usually with 
Inadequate results. One of the most effective performers in Italian opera, and 
with a superb voice, was presented at this house. Pedroti will long be remem- 
bered for her charming acting and singing. 

Several of the actors, of established reputations, from other theaters, 
appeared here for short engagements. Cooper occasionally reminded his 
admirers of an early day of the gratification his acting had afforded them ; 
while those well-remembered favorites, Mr. and Mrs. Hilson, whose names 
were household words with a New York audience, sometimes wandered away 
from the Park to receive a cordial w r elcome at Richmond Hill. But the chief 
incident in this dramatic episode was the entrance into the management of 
John Barnes, so long and well known as one of the leading comic actors from 
the Park company. 

Mr. and Mrs. Barnes were sterling performers. They had brought from 
their old theatrical homestead all the prestige of a life-long stage success. 
They had also acquired a moderate competency in the practice of their profes- 
sion, and had won the warm regard and respect of a large community of friends, 
of the drama, by the excellency of their deportment and habits of life. Mr. 
Barnes first appeared at the Park Theater, in the year 1816, and Mrs. Barnes at 
the same time. They both soon established themselves in public favor, and 
remained at the Park until the spring of the year 1832, when Mr. Barnes 
accepted the management of the new theater. The enterprise was a signal 
failure, much to the regret of those who witnessed the misfortune which befell 
the manager and his accomplished companion. 

In opening the second season, in May, 1832, Mrs. Barnes delighted her 
audience by reciting a brilliant Address from the pen of a gentleman who shone 
among the literary lights of that day. Mr. Charles P. Clinch, with character- 
istic, but not to be commended, modesty, withheld his poem from the press, 
and it cannot, therefore, lend grace and beauty to these pages. 

The theater, with the aid occasionally of a circus company, or a menagerie, 
continued its feeble existence for about ten years, and at the close of 1842 it 
finally surrendered to a fate that was inevitable — its doors were closed never 
again to be opened. 

And thus passed away the glories and the shadows of Richmond Hill. All 
that remains of them are a few fleeting memories and a page or two of historv 
fast fading into oblivion. 



APPENDIX IIP 



INSCRIPTION ON MONTGOMERY'S MONUMENT. 



This Monument is erected by the order of Congress, 
25th Jan^, 1776, to transmit to posterity a grateful remem- 
brance of the patriotism, conduct, enterprise & perseverance 
of Major General Richard Montgomery, 
Who after a series of successes amidst the most discou- 
raging difficulties Fell in the attack on 
Quebec, 31 st DeC 1775, Aged 37 years. 



Invenit et sculpsit.Parisiis J.J. Caffieri, SculptorRegius, Anno Domini cbbcclxxvii 



THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

Caused the Remains of 

MAJOR GENU,. RICHARD MONTGOMERY, 

To be conveyed from Quebec 

And deposited beneath this Monument, 

the 8th day of July, 

1818. 



85 



14 APPENDIX III 



LETTER FROM GENERAL MONTGOMERY. 

General Richard Montgomery was born December 2, 1736, not at Convoy, 
as sometimes stated, but at Swords; Feltrim, near Swords, Laving been a resi- 
dence of different members of the family, and indeed at times of Thomas 
Montgomery. 

The events leading to Richard Montgomery's design of coming to Ameiica 
have always been involved in obscurity, but the following, which I have not 
before seen, may give the whole clue to his emigration :* " You no doubt will 
be surprised when I tell you I have taken the resolution of quitting the ser- 
vice and dedicating the rest of my life to husbandry, for which I have of late 
conceived a violent passion. A passion I am determined to indulge in, quit- 
ting the career of glory for the substantial comforts of independence. My 
frequent disappointments with respect to preferment, the little prospect of 
future advancement to a man who has no friends able or willing to serve him, 
the mortification of seeing those of more interest getting before one, the little 
chance of having anything to do in the way of my profession, and that time of 
life approaching when rambling has no longer its cbarms, have confirmed me 
in the indulgence of my inclination. And as a man with little money cuts but 
a bad figure in this country among peers, nabobs, etc., etc., I have cast my eye 
on America, where my pride and poverty will be much more at their ease. 
This is an outline of my future plans." The tenor of this is borno out in a let- 
ter he wrote — one of the last he ever penned — to his father-in-law, Judge Liv- 
ingston, who died before the letter reached its address, at " Headquarters 
before Quebec, December 16, 1775. . . . Should my good fortune give me 
success, I shall as soon as possible return home. I have lost the ambition 
which once sweetened a military life — a sense of my duty is the only spring of 
action. I must leave the field to those who have a more powerful incentive. 
I think our affairs at present in so prosperous a situation that I may venture 
to indulge myself in that sort of life which alone gives me pleasure. Should 
the scene change, I shall always be ready to contribute my mite to the public 
safety." Alas ! for him and for his adopted country, what a change a fortnight 
brought to these bright dreams. But yet the letter to his father-in-law betrays 
the cause of his failure in Quebec, the force of which, perhaps, his unflinching 
spirit underestimated. " The unhappy passion for going home which prevails 
among the troops, has left me almost too weak to undertake the business I 
am about." 

General Montgomery, soon after his coming to America in 1772, "'laid out 
part of his money in the purchase of a farm and house near King's Bridge, 
about thirteen miles from the city of New York. Upon this he erected a 
small fort, which was evacuated and has been ever since garrisoned by the 

British troops After your brother's marriage, having acquired a tract of 

land by my sister, he laid out a considerable sum of money in building a 
dwelling-house and mills, which by his will were left to his widow." f This is 

* MS. letter written to his cousin John Montgomery of Ballyleck, in the possession of 
General George S. Montgomery. 

t Letter of Chancellor Livingston to Viscount Ranelagh, dated Salisbury, November 
2, 1777. 



A P P E N D 1 X I I I . 15 

Montgomery Place on the Hudson, now in the possession of Mrs. T. P. Barton, 
who inherited it from her aunt, Mrs. Montgomery. 

Mrs. Montgomery kept up an intimate correspondence with members of 
her husband's family in Ireland, and many years after his death paid them a 
visit. There are many specimens of American trees at Convoy, the seed of 
which it is said she sent over. She died in 1828, aged eighty-five. 

There is a very good portrait of the General at Beaulieu House, a photo- 
graph of which I have seen, and which, when compared with that at Mont- 
gomery Place, would make it appear that the latter was a copy of the former ; 
he must have sat for it at an earlier age than thirty-six, the period of his com- 
ing to America ; he is habited in a red coat, and had not yet resigned his com- 
mission in the British army. 

General Montgomery left behind him but few memorials of his active and 
eventful life ; those that have come to light have mostly all appeared in the 
biographical notices already of him. His correspondence was sparse, but 
good ; time may yet collect many of his letters still in private hands, and 
these, with other memorials which we hope are in store for the curious inquirer, 
may at a future day be given by some lover of his memory — and what Ameri- 
can does not merit this claim ? — to the public. 



APPENDIX IV. 



NEW YORK CITY POST-OFFICE. 

The history of the New York Post-office is to such an extent the history of 
the city itself, so far as regards its growth and prosperity, that the present 
work would not be complete without a more detailed account than the one 
given in the text. The following sketch is also from Harper's Magazine for 
October, 1871 : 

There seems to be no preserved evidence that for very many years after the 
settlement of what is now known as the city of New York there was any offi- 
cially recognized post-office. The population was small in numbers, and there 
were no business inducements which would lead to much correspondence. 
The very first ships which arrived after the primitive settlement of course 
brought letters to New Amsterdam, and the commencement of our local office 
was naturally coeval with the foundation of the city ; but it was many years 
before there was a population which called for any system looking toward 
revenue. 

On the arrival of the vessel those letters relating to the cargo were deliv- 
ered to the merchants ; the members of the exulting, expecting crowd which 
welcomed their friends received their letters from hands warm with the grasp 
of friendship. If a solitary epistle found no owner, it was left in the possession 
of some responsible private citizen until called for. In time the intercourse 
with Holland increased, and there gradually developed a system of voluntary 
distribution which became eventually known as the " coffee-house delivery," 
which maintained its popularity and usefulness more than a hundred years. 

This system grew out of the custom of masters of vessels, and the people 
from the settlements of Breucklyn, Pavonia, and the distant Hackensack, 
leaving at some agreed-upon popular tavern letters intrusted to them which 
they could not personally deliver. Here these " waifs" were kept in a small 
box, conveniently placed within the reach of all, or gibbeted ingeniously upon 
the surface of a smooth board, by means of green baize, tape, and brass-headed 
nails, the " composition " displayed the while, like some choice picture, in the 
most conspicuous part of the public room. There were hangers-on at these 
popular resorts who unconsciously acted as agents for this arcadian post : for 



APPENDIX IV, 17 



they acquired temporary importance, and sometimes a bit of tobacco or a glass 
of Schiedam schnapps, by circulating information regarding the "letter list 
It was a curious Bight, these old depositories of commercial speculations and 
homely friendships. Many were the neglected letters which were taken and 
examined by the simple-hearted old burghers, until the superscriptions were 
entirely defaced by the handling. Crabbed writing must, under the best cir- 
cumstances, have made the characteristic and familiar Holland names of Guys- 
bert van Imbroecken and Ryndert Jansen van Hooghten appear very much 
like an imitation of a Virginia fence ; but when these same letters became 
here and there defaced and stained by soiling fingers, the superscription must 
have been a jumble indeed. It is asserted, however, that the possible contents 
of these " literary orphans" were sources of infinite gossip to the loungers at 
the tavern for they would sit silently and smoke for long hours thinking over 
the important matter, occasionally uttering the vague speculation that they 
-were written by somebody;" and after this severe effort of conjectural 
thought would lapse again into dreamy somnolency. 

The tradition, however, is doubtful that the earlier Dutch governors 
received their official dispatches through the coffee-house delivery, and con- 
tinned so to do up to the time of the testy and resolute Stuyvesant, who con- 
ceived the idea that more rapid communication with the gubernatorial head- 
quarters might be had by sending these important documents, without any 
circumlocution, to his official residence. 

For many years, even after the English took possession of New York, the 
coffee-house delivery was really the people's institution for the distribution of 
written information. The custom continued with the population of the sea- 
port towns of turning out and greeting the arrival of every important vessel, and 
there followed the consequent exchange of congratulations, inquiries, and let- 
ters • and even after a more comprehensive and responsible system was 
demanded, it was difficult to get the people to wholly change their old and 
confirmed ways, to depart from habits associated with so many pleasant 

trad But°aiis simple style of conducting business gradually became inefficient; 
and the "mother country," after England assumed the maternal position, 
turned its attention to the establishment of post-offices throughout the few 
densely settled portions of the colonies. At this period, toward the close of 
the seventeenth century (1672), New York boasted of five thousand inhabit- 
ants Both Philadelphia and Boston were her superiors in population and 
commercial importance, and their citizens entered upon the new arrangements 
with actively expressed zeal. But New York in spirit remained a mere m1- 
W for its old population was quite satisfied with things as they were, and 
resolutely maintained its correspondence, whenever it was possible through 
private means. An innovation on this custom was evidently made by an offi- 
cial order, issued in 1686, that ship-letters must be sent to the custom .house ; 
and we presume that the municipal government came to the rescue in 1692, by 
passing an act establishing a post-office. Mwtt ji t^ 

In the year 1710 the Postmaster-General of Great Bntain directed the 
esta i ment of a " chief letter office ■ in the city of New York, Philadelphia 
£Z been previously made the headquarters ot the colonial or.anizatom 
in t Succeeding year arrangements were completed for the delivery of the 



18 APPENDIX IV. 

Boston mail twice a month, and propositions to establish afoot post to Albany- 
were advertised. The New York Gazette, for the week ending the 3d of May, 
1732, has the following interesting advertisement : 

" The New York Post-office will be removed to-morrow to the uppermost of the two 
houses on Broadway, opposite Beaver Street. 

Richakd Nichol, Esq., P. M." 

In 1740 a complete road was " blazed " from Paulus Hook (Jersey City) to 
Philadelphia, over which road, without any stated intervals of time, the mail 
was carried on horseback between Philadelphia and New York. 

Twenty-one years. (1753) after-the notice we have quoted of the removal of 
the New York post-office to Broadway we find it still in the same location, but 
designated as being opposite Bowling Green, and that it would be open every 
day, save Saturday afternoon and Sunday, from 8 to 12 A. M., except on post 
nights, when attendance would be given until ten at night. Signed, Alexan- 
der Colden, Deputy-postmaster, and Secretary and Comptroller. 

Dr. Franklin must have been very active in the establishment of postal 
facilities throughout the colonies ; for in the year 1753, much to his personal 
satisfaction, he was appointed Postmaster-General, with a small salary, which, 
it was quaintly added, " he could have if he could get it." But in spite of the 
establishment of a city post forty years previously, New York did not attract 
any special attention, and the revenues derived therefrom are not mentioned, 
while those of Boston and Philadelphia have frequent notice. It is probable 
that the municipal and the colonial authorities carried on much of their cor- 
respondence through agents, who were left to their own ways, the habits of the 
mass of the people confining them to their old notions of volunteer distribu- 
tion, which was also encouraged by the high rates of postage. So long, indeed, 
did the coffee-house delivery maintain its popularity, that we find " the consti- 
tuted officials" complaining of the fact as injuring the revenue, and finally 
an attempt was made to break up the custom by the publication of severe 
penalties. 

In Dr. Franklin's celebrated examination before the House of Commons 
committee on the situation of the colonies we find the following questions and 
answers, evidently aimed at the coffee-house distribution of letters : 

Committee — Do not letters often come into the post-offices of America 
directed to inland towns where no post goes? 

Dr. Franklin — Yes. 

Committee — Can any private person take up these letters and carry them 
as directed'? 

Dr. Franklin — Yes, a friend of the person may do it, paying the postage 
that has accrued. 

But for many years, in spite of this governmental opposition, New York 
city kept up the custom. The coffee-houses maintained their popularity. To 
them resorted the chief men and the wits of the town. At them were to be 
met the sea-captains and strangers from abroad, and gossip answered the place 
of the daily paper; and there was kept up the "card-rack," sticking full of 
letters and business notices; nor would public opinion severely condemn this 
custom, so peculiar to New York. Even the first Tontine Coffee-house, as it 
was called, had its place for exchanging letters. It was not until it was 



APPENDIX IV. 10 

found out by experience that a well-regulated city post was safer, of less 
trouble, and more expeditious, that the coffee-house letter distribution came 
to an end. 

The oppressions of the colonies by the British Government occasioned a 
novel form of indignation, which expressed itself by the decided patronage of 
what appears to have been a " continental post," which was carried on in 
opposition to the one under the control of the English Postmaster-general, for 
we find a notice that the deputy of the British Government was vainly endea- 
voring to keep up a post-office. 

Alexander Golden remained postmaster up to the breaking out of the Rev- 
olution, for in the year previous (1775) his name appears in the Gazette in con- 
nection with the office, and with the additional one of agent for the English 
packets, which sailed once a month. 

Upon the British troops taking possession of New York, the old record of 
the post-office disappears. For seven years it was abolished by the exactions 
of the provost-marshal, and little correspondence ensued not connected with 
the movements of troops. William Bedlow was the first postmaster after the 
close of the war, as his name appears in that connection in 1785 ; but in the 
succeeding year (1786) Sebastian Bauman was postmaster ; and in the first 
directory of the city ever published — in which we find nine hundred and 
twenty-six names of citizens, the members of Congress, etc., John Hancock,. 
Esq., President — is the following advertisement : 

ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES OF THE MAILS AT THE POST- 
OFFICE IN NEW YORK. 

ARRIVALS. 

PROM NEW ENGLAND AND ALBANY. 

From November 1st to May 1st. 
On Wednesday and Saturday, at seven o'clock p. m. 

From May 1st to November 1st. 
On Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, at eight o'clock r. si. 

FROM THE SOUTHWARD. 

From November 1st to May 1st. 
On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at nine o'clock p. si. 

DEPARTURES. 

FOR NEW ENGLAND AND ALBANY. 

From November 1st to May 1st. 
On Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, at ten o'clock p.m. 

From May 1st to November 1st. 
On Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, at ten o'clock p. m. 

FOR THE SOUTHWARD. 

From November 1st to May 1st. 
On Sunday and Thursday, at two o"clock p. m. 

From Maij 1st to November 1st. 
On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at four o'clock p. si. 

*** Letters must be in the office half an hour before closing. 



20 APPENDIX IV. 

Congress in those early days was more considerate of the personal comforts 
of the post-office clerks than at the present time ; for, with business that was 
scarcely worth noticing under the head of " labor," that deliberative body 
found heart to pass a solemn act directing "that all letters left at the post a 
half hour before the time of making up the mail must be forwarded therein." 
Therefore, advertised the sagacious Sebastian Bauman, all letters left at the 
office not conformable with this act will be left over until the next post ! The 
income of the New York post-office the first year (1786) of this most excellent 
red-tape official was two thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine dollars and 
eighty-four cents ; and from this amount, as a starting-point, can be correctly 
estimated the annual increase of the postal business of New York City. 

On the 30th of April, 1788, Washington was inaugurated President, and 
the establishment of the General Post-office as now organized immediately 
followed. Samuel Osgood was appointed Postmaster-General, and assumed 
his duties in the city of New York under the tuition of Sebastian Bauman. 
What should be done with this important official was evidently a subject of 
Congressional discussion ; for we find officially recorded, that " the Postmas- 
ter-general shall not keep any office separate from the one in which the mails 
arriving in New York are opened and distributed, that he may by his pres- 
ence prevent irregularities, and rectify mistakes which may occur." In fact, 
this now most important officer of the General Government, and his solitary 
assistant and one clerk, then had nothing to do ; so they took their first les- 
sons in the service in the post-office of the city of New York. At this time 
there were throughout the United States seventy-five legally established post- 
offices and one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five miles of post-office 
routes. 

In a very short time the national capital was transferred to Philadelphia, 
which had three penny-post carriers when New York had one — suggestive 
data of the comparative importance of the two cities at that time. The 
Southern or Philadelphia mail left New York daily ; the Eastern mail tri- 
weekly ; special mails for New Jersey and Long Island once a week. Mails to 
Albany were carried on horseback — contractor's remuneration, " postage col- 
lected." 

"Colonel" Sebastian Bauman disappears in 1804; and his successor, Josias 
Ten Eyck, after what was to the public probably an uneventful year, gave way to 
General Theodorus Bailey, who received his appointment January 2d, 1804. 
and who satisfactorily performed the duties of his office for nearly a quarter 
of a century. General Bailey was a gentleman of high standing in the com- 
munity. He was a member of the House of Representatives two sessions, and 
a United States Senator in 1803, which position he held one year, and then re- 
signed to assume the duties of postmaster. 

The post office was removed from Broadway by General Bailey, who estab- 
lished it in a house he had purchased, 29 William Street, corner of Garden, 
now Exchange Place. The building, even at that early day, was considered 
and spoken of as an " old-fashioned house." The windows were wide apart, 
and between the two on the lower story was a narrow door, the entrance of 
which was protected by a stoop lined with the usual wooden benches. A 
single dormer-window broke up the monotony of the peaked roof. The win- 
dow frame on the left of the door was divided into the novelty of small boxes 



APPENDIX IV. 21 

(now for the first time introduced), one hundred and forty-four in number. 
The office occupied was twelve feet in width and fifteen deep. The room was 
so small that it soon became overcrowded, and the increase of the newspaper 
mail became so great that William Coleman, publisher of the Evening Post, 
who kept a book-store comer of William and Wall Streets, used to take the 
accumulated newspapers, generally of an entire week, over to his store, and 
assort them at his leisure, tying up each distribution with a string, and then 
sending them back to the post-office to be distributed through the mails. 

General Bailey occupied the upper part of the house with his family. In 
accordance with the custom of those times, between twelve and one o'clock he 
closed up the lower part of the door and joined his family at dinner. If any 
parties were delayed by this attention to refreshments, they would, if strangers, 
reach around, and, seizing hold of the huge lion-headed knocker, make a clatter 
that could be heard a block away. If the solitary clerk answered this clamor, 
he generally remarked that the banks closed between twelve and one, and why 
shouldn't the post-office ? and, with other evidences of dissatisfaction, would 
dismiss the impatient citizens. But if General Bailey was forced to reply, he 
would answer the call with the courtliness of an officer of the army associated 
with General Washington, and he would dismiss the inquirer, after written 
and sealed information with the same old-school bow with which he would have 
delivered an order from head-quarters or a bouquet to a lady. If any of 
General Bailey's personal acquaintances happened to call in an unpropitious 
hour, and no one was in attendance, they would help themselves, carefully leav- 
ing the money for postage on the table, which occupied almost the entire inte- 
rior of the room. 

The establishment of the " embargo " in the year 1807 paralyzed all busi- 
ness, and, of course, seriously affected that of the post-office. From this time 
onward for several years there was little that occurred of general interest. It 
was not until the agitation of the right of the British Government to impress 
seamen sailing under the American flag that New York was aroused from what 
seemed to be a chronic apathy, and the name of General Bailey, the postmaster, 
suddenly appears, among others, attached to certain resolutions resenting this 
monstrous assumption on the part "of the self-styled mistress of the seas." The 
War of 1812 followed ( and thepost-office business continued to suffer. The clerical 
force, in consequence, was reduced one-third by the dismissal of a junior clerk ; 
Archibald Forrester, one of the two retained, acting occasionally as a volunteer 
in throwing up earthworks " above King's Bridge," and again in superin- 
tending laborers engaged in constructing the round fort which still adorns the 
Battery. Jimmy Mower, the junior clerk, was drafted, but saved his place by 
hiring a substitute. Thus the post-office took a front rank in the patriotic 
efforts made to save the national honor. This war excitement had a healthy 
action on the country ; the post-office business began to increase, and from that 
time steadily developed in importance. 

In the summer of 1822 the city was desolated by the yellow fever, and was 
almost absolutely deserted by its population. The infected district was sepa- 
rated from the outer world by a high board fence, which ran across the city 
through the line of Duane, and what was then known as Harrison Street. Per 
sons who had the temerity to climb to the top of this barricade relate that in 
the height of the plague not a living person could be 6een. The post-office for 
86 



22 APPENDIX IV. 

the public accommodation, was moved to Greenwich village, the desks, mail- 
bags, and all making hardly enough to overcrowd a modern furniture cart. 
The building temporarily appropriated was a handsome two-story frame-house, 
erected for a bank but .not occupied, situated corner of Asylum, now Fourth, 
and what was subsequently known as Bank Street. 

[This house, the last of the old homesteads remaining below Thirty-seventh 
Street, is now (January, 1872) in process of demolition on the corner of Fourth 
Street and West Tenth. It was a wide, one story frame building, with peaked 
roof and verandah front, and was considered the most beautiful residence of 
ancient Gotham. The grounds around it, consisting of several acres, were laid 
out regardless of expense. Besides flowers innumerable, they contained every 
known variety of choice fruit-trees, and its fish-ponds were the wonder of the 
period. There being no Croton, a large number of cisterns were sunk at great out- 
lay to supply these with water. It was erected by Garret Gilbert, a well-known 
personage who flourished seventy-five years ago. He did not enjoy it long, 
however, as he soon ran through his large fortune, and the property was sold 
at auction to the late Senator Marcus Spencer, whom many of the old residents 
of the city will remember. In 1822, during the prevalence of the yellow fever, 
as stated in the text, it was temporarily taken possession of by the United 
States authorities, who established the post-office there, out of the reach of the 
epidemic. Senator. Spencer and his family continued to reside in the house until 
twelve years ago, when he died. It then passed into the possession of Dr. Hall, 
the Senator's son-in-law, who now owns it. — Note by the Author.] 

The magnificent trees which surrounded the house still have representatives 
standing in Hammond Street. Between Greenwich village and New York at 
that time was a vast tract of unoccupied and broken land. Woodcock and 
and snipe " from the Jerseys " still found shelter in the marshes, the waters of 
which drained through old Canal Street. 

When the yellow fever was raging, the rural population of the village, 
much to their annoyance, found their houses filled with people flying for their 
lives; these inflictions were borne with patience, since any fears were quieted 
by liberal pay for shelter ; but when the post-office arrived, followed by the 
fear-stricken clerks, they concluded that disaster had indeed fallen in their 
midst, and that the letters and those grim road-worn mail-bags were but seeds 
and depositories of pestilence. With the sharp, biting frosts of the latter part 
of November the post-office was removed back to its old quarters. 

In the year 1825 there was an imperative demand for better, or rather for 
more roomy, accommodations, and the Government leased the " Academy Build- 
ing," opposite Dr. Matthew's church in Garden (now Exchange) Street. The 
free school which had been its occupant for many previous years was under the 
control of the " Reformed Dutch Consistory." It was a two-story wooden build- 
ing, and familiar to the youthful population, and especially " the rising young 
men," for they had one and all within its inclosure been more or less severely 
disciplined in the principles of a useful education, and had been physically in- 
vigorated by the virtues of a sound thrashing. 

The front of the building had some pretensions to novelty by slight 
attempts at ornamentation, and the unusual covering of a flat roof. On one 
side was a small pen, through which was the entrance into the yard, and under- 
neath was a sort of dungeon for the confinement, if so ordered, of fractious boys, 
whom reason, mingled with Scripture, worldly advice, and birchen rods, had 
failed to reform. On the opposite side was Postmaster Bailey's residence, a 



APPENDIX IV. 



23 



narrow two-story house, with a single dormer-window, and a cellar in the base- 
ment, protected from observation by doors which, from their propitious angle, 
formed the " summer sliding-pond " of young New York. 

In this new location two windows were knocked into one, and the acquired 
space was filled up with nine hundred letter-boxes, and, to the astonishment of 
many, they were soon leased for business purposes. To make everything satis- 
factory to the public, General Bailey obtained permission from the Government 
to build a wooden shed over the sidewalk, so that people waiting at the delivery 
window were protected from the snow and rain. At this time there were eight 
clerks— W. B. Taylor, Joseph Dodd, George Abell, Courter Goodwin, W. S. Dun- 
ham, James Lynch, James Mower, and Charles Forrester. On the 1st of January, 
1871, three of these clerks, after forty-five years of faithful service, were still 
at work, viz., W. B. Taylor, Joseph Dodd, and Charles' Forrester ; the two last 
named are all that are left of those who were on duty in the first quarter of 
the century. 

In those days the prevailing spirit was one of quiet. There was not appar- 
ently even a foreshadowing of the " lightning speed " which is characteristic of 
every event of this generation ; for, thirty or forty years ago, a voyage from 
Liverpool to New York was " rapid " if accomplished within two months, and 
quite satisfactory if not prolonged to ninety days. Even after the lapse of this 
last-mentioned time there was no anxiety in the minds of self-possessed friends. 
The vessel, they would say, has met with some accident and put in at Fayal, 
of Azores or Western Islands, then a sort of half-way station, where ships and 
passengers alike rested from their fatigues. After repairing sails and cordage, 
and supplying the exhausted stores of provisions, the good ship and easy-going 
passengers would renew their slow progress westward, possibly consuming a 
third of a year in the voyage. It was after one of these "long-drawn-out 
events," when the skipper probably consumed more time to get his craft from 
Sandy Hook to the " Dover-street Dock " than is now necessary to make the 
entire voyage across the Atlantic, that a passenger, evidently born out of 
his time, so fully realized the misery of the programme that he indignantly, 
and with some tendency to hyperbole, asserted, " that if all the trees in the 
the world were pens, and all the men in the world scribes, and all the water in 
the sea ink, they couldn't explain the calamity of such a voyage." 

There were no telegraphs, no speedy movements by the aid of steam, and 
consequently nothing of what is now designated newspaper enterprise. As a 
consequence, the people, even like their Knickerbocker predecessors, depended 
upon, and were quite satisfied to wait upon, chance for information. A well- 
known citizen "from the interior," now designated the "rural districts," was 
button-holed (" interviewed," we would say) under the post-office shed regard- 
ing the corn and potato crop of his section. A " Southerner," or a live sea-cap- 
tain, or a passenger "just from Europe," were severally perfect magazines of 
news. Information thus obtained— if used with spirit— would frequently appear 
within a week or ten days. Here at the post-office was to be met, every pleas- 
ant moaning, Charles King of the American, Redwood Fisher of the DaUy 
Advertiser, and the pleasantest man of all the press, Major Mordecai M. Noah 
of the Courter, and other distinguished editors, who, having exchanged the 
ordinary courtesies of the day, would in an oracular manner give utterance to 
startling political or social observations, the pleasant interlude very likely ter 



24 APPENDIX IV, 

urinating in a practical joke, profanely indulged in by an irreverent bank clerk, 
or valuable assistant of a popular auctioneer. 

But the post-office had among its clerks Jimmy Mower. He was a smart 
business man, of wonderful capacity for work, and of the most equable good- 
nature. In addition, he was pretty well read ; he boasted that he got his infor- 
mation in connection with his business of distributing the newspapers. One of 
his jokes grew out of the fact that in the war he was drafted, but, to avoid the 
responsibility, hired a substitute, who was killed at the famous sortie on Fort 
Erie, Canada frontier, and consequently that he (Jimmy Mower) had been killed 
in the service of his country, and that his bones were absolutely whitening on 
the battle-field. His efforts to get a pension for his heirs and get his post-office 
pay at the same time proved a puzzler to the best legal minds. The fashion 
of the times was rather " stately," but Mower, dead as he was, had life enough 
in him to amuse his fellow-clerks by sometimes joining in the conversations 
held under the shed outside of the post-office, and turning what was serious 
into ridicule. He generally hallooed his remarks through a broken pane of 
glass, at the same time making his hands almost invisible in the distribution 
of mail matter. 

He was popular with the crowd, and if he could give the erudite Charles 
King, or the subtle Redwood Fisher, or the worthy Major Noah what the 
" boys " termed a " side-winder," it would set the post-office congregation in a 
roar. If Jimmy was turned on by some indignant individual who didn't see 
his joke, the light-hearted official retreated to the interior of the post-office, leav- 
ing the vehement eloquence intended for his head to be expended against the 
obtruding glass. Colonel Dodd and Charley Forrester, who are still clerks in 
in the post-office, were great admirers of Jimmy Mower, and they still insist, 
after forty-five years of serious reflection on the subject, that Mower was the 
smartest man they ever knew, and that in his fights with " the editors and the 
big-bugs " he always got the advantage. 

The post-office now began to be an institution, and this growing importance 
was pleasant to General Bailey, who, with more enlarged quarters and a pri- 
vate house entirely at his disposal, seemed to grow more courtly than ever, 
and dispensed his pleasant hospitality of conversation from the benches of his 
front-door, where he could often be seen side by side with the Clintons, the 
Willetts, and Schuylers, indulging in mutual congratulations upon the growth 
of the city and country, both of which they had assisted to rescue from colonial 
dependence and place on the high-road to national greatness. 

At that time there were six letter-carriers, the extreme up-town boundary 
of their field of labor being a straight line crossing the island at Catharine and 
Canal Streets. Colonel Reeside was now becoming of national importance by 
his connection with the Post-office Department. He carried the great South- 
ern mail through from Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, delivering it 
by contract at Paulus Hook (Jersey City). Here it was taken possession of by 
Colonel Dodd, who brought over the bags in a skiff, and then trundled them up 
to Garden Street in a wheelbarrow. 

At the foot of Rivington Street, in the year 1825, was an important spot of 
high ground, known as " Manhattan Island" — a place where were located the 
ship-yards, among them the large one belonging to Henry Eckford. The pro- 
prietors of these yards had an extensive correspondence with the South, espe- 



APPENDIX IV. 25 

cially with Georgia and Florida, from which States they obtained their fat pine 
and live-oak used in ship-building. Mr. Charles Forrester, more than forty 
years an employe of the post-office, and who still performs his daily and ardu- 
ous duties, then a boy, lived in the suburbs, and he would bring up the letters 
directed to these ship-builders, carry them across the wet meadows that lined 
the eastern side of the island, and deliver them to their owners. 

The year 1825 was made memorable by the fact that Colonel Reeside 
obtained the contract to carry the mails from Boston to New York, the route 
being over the old post-road. Reeside's stages were very showy, drawn by 
four blooded Virginia horses, and driven by the most accomplished " Jehus." 

On pleasant summer afternoons the people confined to the lower part of the 
island would purposely walk up the Bowery to see the " Boston mail " come 
in. Some time before the vehicle reached the old hay-scales, just where the 
Cooper Institute now stands, the driver would herald his approach by a melo- 
dious winding of his horn ; then, laying aside this vulgar instrument, he would 
assume his legitimate scepter, the whip, which he would harmlessly crack 
over the heads of his spirited steeds with a noise that, on a clear day, could be 
" heard a mile." 

On Saturdays the jolly school boys and girls would gather together under 
the tall poplars and button-wood trees, and as the stage dashed along they 
would wave their hands as a welcome, and the most venturesome would catch 
hold of the straps, and thus have the glory of riding a few yards under the 
overhanging " boot." The characteristic gamins of that period would evince 
their enthusiasm by following the coach and rollicking in the dust of its 
revolving wheels; would cheer it and its passengers to the end of the route; 
and especially was this the case when the driver would make purposely-abor- 
tive attempts to drive these human flies away with his whip, or a jocose pas- 
senger would bandy wit with the boys, and make them crazy with delight by 
the scattering of a few pennies in the road. 

In the winter these gay coaches were put aside, and in their place was a 
huge box on wheels, the combination not unlike a hoarse, in the heart of which 
was deposited the load. The practice then was to abandon passengers, when 
the roads were heavy from mud and rain, and carry the mails; but now-a-days, 
if the reports from many of the existing stage routes be true, under unfa- 
vorable circumstances the drivers abandon the mails to carry the passengers. 
Amos Kendall, the indefatigable Postmaster-general, by his industry and good 
management, reduced the carrying time between New York and New Orleans 
from sixteen to seven days. The event was celebrated at the Merchants' 
Exchange and the post-office by the raising of the national standard, and there 
was a general rejoicing in Wall Street. Jimmy Mower had his joke by gravely 
asserting, that all newspapers delivered at the office from New Orleans less 
than sixteen days old were printed at the Advertiser office. 

Progress was now perceptible in the whole city, in the evident growth of 
wealth and population. The merchants (1825) were suddenly inspired with 
the ambition to have an Exchange worthy of their increasing importance, and 
an honor to the growing metropolis. To realize this idea they purchased a lot 
of seventy feet fronting on Wall Street, and at that time practically between 
William and Pearl Streets. The foundations of the building were laid with 
imposing ceremonies, and its gradual erection, joined with the promising 



26 APPENDIX IV. 

grandeur, was to the citizens a source of daily surprise and self-congratulation. 
In due time the structure was completed, and to give proper importance to the 
event, and a characteristic recognition of one of New York's greatest financiers 
and lawyers, a marble statue of Alexander Hamilton was placed conspicuously 
under the dome. 

The " solid men " went from this stately pile around to the humble post- 
office in Garden Street, and the board front and "shanty" shed became distaste- 
ful to their eyes and unworthy of the city. This public sentiment was utilized 
into well-written articles for the newspapers, and the people grew suddenly 
ambitious for a better and more convenient post-office. The merchants favored 
the idea, and a part of the basement of the new Exchange was leased to the 
Federal Government, and in the year 1827 the post-office was established in its 
new and excellent quarters. 

Wall Street at this time presented a picturesque mingling of the highest 
social life with churches, banks, and business stores combined. That it was 
in a transition state was apparent, yet we much doubt if the fact was fully 
realized by even the most sagacious citizens. The monetary institutions had a 
solid, unpretentious look, and the buildings in which they were lodged, in some 
instances, were occupied in their upper stories by the presidents or cashiers, 
with their families. Then our most solid merchants did not find it inconsist- 
ent to live over their stores, and have at their tables their confidential clerks. 
Large trees still shaded the sidewalks, and private residences were to be seen, 
at the windows of which, after business hours, the ladies of the household 
presented themselves, or, standing at the front-door, according to the early 
custom of New York, chatted with neighbors. " Wall Street Church " and 
grounds occupied half the block that reached from Nassau to Broadway ; 
while over the whole towered the venerable pile known as " Old Trinity," its 
grave-yard adding to the rural aspect, and giving an air of quiet to the sur- 
roundings. The Merchants' Exchange occupied only the eastern half of the 
square on which it was built ; and directly adjoining it was a little candy 
shop, where they sold spruce-beer and " taffy" by the penny's worth. Then 
came the shop of a fashionable haberdasher, and on the corner Avas Benedict's 
well-known watch establishment, the regulator of which governed Wall 
Street time. 

In the rear of the eastern corner of the basement of the Exchange was 
located the celebrated lunch-room of Charley King. How his restaurant 
would compare with the more pretentious ones of modern date we will not 
assert; but for hearty good-will, substantial fare, high respectability, and 
unquestioned manners, the proprietors of this now almost forgotten lunch- 
room have not, since its destruction, been surpassed. In the basement corner 
of Wall and Hanover Streets James Buchanan, British consul, and David Hale, 
printed a paper with the happily selected name of Journal of Commerce. It 
was at the commencement an unpretending sheet, and from the fact that it was 
semi-religious in its tone, and refused advertisements for the sale of liquors, 
was assumed to be a " temperance sheet." Among the well-known characters 
then living in New York was one " Johnny Edwards, scale-beam maker." He 
lived " up town," in the vicinity of what is now known as Fourth Street and 
Second Avenue. He was a man of the most harmless eccentricity, dressing 
himself in a Quaker garb, and riding about in a rickety old gig. He used 



APPENDIX IV. 27 

sometimes to come down to Wall Street in business hours, and, taking advan- 
tage of tlie crowd in front of the Exchange, would proceed to harangue the 
"thoughtless generation" on the virtues of his patent scale beams, and the 
necessities of temperance. Ashe clinched his argument regarding temperance 
with the distribution of tracts, he took great umbrage at the assumptions of 
the Journal of Commerce, pronouncing it a rival sheet on the great subject of 
temperance. The crowd enjoyed these interruptions of the usual routine of 
the street, to the great annoyance of David Hale, who considered the whole 
thing an undignified travesty on his gravely attempted efforts to bring about 
a moral reform. 

Even at this dawning era the spirit of New York was unambitious, and the 
people, with few exceptions, were evidently unconscious of the changes in its 
character which were impending. One mail delivery a day was all the mer- 
chants demanded. The newspapers were rarely excited about the receipt of 
their exchanges. The hurry and bustle and anxiety which now pervades 
Wall Street were totally unknown. Groups were constantly in and about the 
Exchange conversing upon trivial matters ; the merry, hearty laugh was 
heard time and again through the day, expressing admiration of harmless 
jokes uttered by persons at the time enjoying the hospitality of Charley 
King's lunch ; while the clerks, less able to pay, made merry at Billy Niblo's, 
or Clark and Brown's, where for a sixpence they commanded a plentiful dish 
of Fulton Market beef, and trimmings to match ; and, if extravagantly in- 
clined, they would pay another sixpence for a cup of coffee and a cruller, to 
make the equal of which has ceased to be possible outside of the " kitchen- 
houses " belonging to our old population. 

The Exchange had a narrow front on the street, and ran through to Gar- 
den. The entrance to the basement was under a circular opening, which was 
made of the arch which supported the steps that led up to the rotunda. The 
post-office was established in the rear eastern half of the basement, where it 
had ample room and much to spare. Two delivery windows were established, 
and three thousand boxes for the accommodation of the merchants ; and so 
seemingly enormous had now become the business that twenty-two clerks 
were employed, and twenty-two letter-carriers, whose routes now reached up 
as high as Houston and Ninth, now Fourth Street. Now for the first time was 
found a demand for the assignment of a clerk wholly to a special duty, and 
"little Sam Gouverneur" was appointed to the exclusive care of the money 
department, and dignified with the title of " cashier." 

To facilitate the arrival and departure of the mails, and give light to that 
part of the basement occupied by the post-office, what is now known as 
Hanover Street (which had, thirty years previously, been used by foot passen- 
gers as a short-cut to Hanover Square) was cleared out and made a street, and 
a small court on this side of the Exchange conveniently opened itself for the 
accommodation of the wagons and other vehicles employed by the post-office. 

General Bailey, who had been an acceptable and honored postmaster almost 
a quarter of a century, full of years and honors, on the 4th of September, 1828, 
passed away. The veterans of the Revolution, as they now began to be called. 
State and city soldiery, the various civic societies, and representatives of the 
army and navy, vied with each other in paying to his memory every possible 
respect. General Jackson, in compliment to ex-President Monroe, who was 



28 APPENDIX IV. 

then living, appointed his son-in-law, Samuel L. Gouverneur, to succeed 

General Bailey. With this event the old-times' history of the post-office of 

New York may be said to have passed away. 

********** 

The windows of the post-office for the distribution of letters and the selling 
of stamps " in sums less than one dollar," are interesting places to study the 
cosmopolitan character of our busy population. It is not uncommon to witness 
people of every nationality " in line," waiting for their turn to inquire for cor- 
respondence. The ladies' window is especially a center of observation ; and the 
appearance of the sex dressed in gay colors and wreathed in smiles lightens up 
the otherwise care-worn, pell-mell, rushing, and sombre-looking crowd. Here 
the "young lady of the period" contrasts with the old crone whose undutiful 
son is " off at sea." The widow in her weeds throws sly glances at the dashing 
clerk ; her hopefulness of the future contrasting strongly with the face of the 
suffering wife, who, sad and discontented, turns abruptly away because her 
absent spouse " had failed to write." 

During the rebellion the post-office clerks, by virtue of their duties, were 
often made unwilling participants in many sad scenes and associations. There 
was a terrible significance in the hymn or prayer-book returned " from the 
front," often saturated with blood or marred by the bullet. Then there were 
the packets of unclaimed letters, dictated by loving, patriotic hearts, returned 
to the mother, wife, or sweetheart of the soldier, bearing the formal but terri- 
ble indorsement of the adjutant of the regiment, of " William Brown, killed in 
battle." It was often almost like stabbing the recipients to the heart to hand 
them such a fatal gift, and the look of unutterable anguish that sometimes fol- 
lowed haunted the day musings and midnight dreams of the sympathizing 
official. But there sometimes, nay, often, came a letter that conveyed to wife 
and family a respite to agonizing suspense, and then the old post-office was for 
the moment bright, and the dangers of war for an instant were forgotten. Les- 
sons of human nature are taught at the delivery window of a post-office in the 
classified peculiarities of the universal patrons of the " republic of letters," 
among which are developed the common facts, that " clergymen, as a class, 
and women, universally, are the most difficult to please !" Certainly they seem 
to complain the most. 

Romantic incidents are not unusual in the history of specific mails. When 
the Japanese empire was opened to the outside world, the first mail from that 
legendary country was sent to New York in a sailing vessel via San Francisco, 
Panama, and Aspinwall. By a coincidence a mail from China via England 
arrived at the post-office simultaneously, and the written ideas and wishes of 
these two Oriental nations for the moment reposed side by side. In their route 
of destination they separated, and made the circuit of the world, to meet again 
in our great Western city of " mushroom barbarians." But speculation is brief 
in the post-office when work is to be done ; the words, " Who separates?" are 
heard, the " travelers" are "broken up," and, piecemeal, sent to their various 
destinations. Some years since a steamer running between Liverpool and Que- 
bec was involved in a terrible storm that swept over the mouth of the St. Law- 
rence. The stanch ship was lost, and all living creatures on board perished. 
Two months afterward the divers, among other things, recovered from the 
wreck the New York city mail, and it was promptly forwarded to its place of 



APPENDIX IV. 29 

destination. When opened the contents were found comparatively safe ; the 
letters were carefully dried and duly distributed ; and these frail, delicate, 
paper memorials of thought remained intact, while the iron-ribbed ship and 
the brave men who commanded her still repose in their ocean grave. * * 

The discipline and efficiency of the city post is shown in the reminiscence 
that, twenty years ago, before there was a postal treaty with England, people 
in that country, according to their caprice, indorsed on the outside of their 
letters by what line of steamers they desired them to be sent. By some acci- 
dent neither of the two composing the American line crossed from England in 
sis months ! The consequence was an extraordinary accumulation of letters 
indorsed "by American steamer;" and when the Washington did reach this 
port, having " broken her shaft, and been frozen up in the harbor of Bremen," 
she had a six months' mail on board. This enormous collection of letters was 
taken to the post-office, and the clerks, without neglecting their daily routine 
duties and working " overtime," distributed this accumulation in ten days ! 
The same number of letters, without interfering with the daily business of the 
office, would now be distributed in one hour! Instead of there being as 
formerly only a few straggling letters, two hundred and fifty thousand postage 
stamps are, on an average, daily canceled, and that is a representation of the 
number of domestic letters delivered at the post-office every twenty-four 
hours. It costs the government sixty thousand dollars annually for cartage to 
haul this vast amount of mail matter to the stations and railway lines.* One 



* As a post-office and a railroad depot are naturally connected — the one distributing 
the mails and the other conveying them— the following account of the Grand Central 
Depot, which was referred to in Chapter XIV., Part III., as having been opened to the public 
in 1871, is in point. The Grand Central Depot on Forty-second Street and Fourth Avenue 
serves as a central depot for the Hudson River, Harlem, and New Haven Railroads. Without 
much pretension to architectural elegance.it is commodious and well adapted to the pur- 
poses for which it was designed, and perhaps we ought not. to ask much more from a rail- 
road depot. 

The building was projected by Commodore Vantjerbilt, and constructed under the 
supervision of Mr. W. H. Vanderbilt. Ground was broken November 15th, 1860, and the 
depot was ready for occupation October 9th, 1871. The entire building is 696 feet long and 
240 feet wide; the space for the accommodation of trains is 610 feet by 200, the rest of the 
building being devoted to offices, waiting-rooms, etc. The height of the main body of the 
depot, from the ground to the top of the roof, is 100 feet, while that of the central tower on 
Forty-second Street is 160 feet to the apex of the roof, and 200 feet to the top of the flag-staff. 
The roof of the main body of the structure— the car-house, as it is called— is supported bv 
thirty-one immense and strong iron trusses, each weighing about forty tons. As it would 
have been extremely difficult to raise such huge m-isses at once, each trus* was lifted to its 
position in sections by derricks mounted on a movable staging. About eight million pounds 
of iron were used in the construction of the depot, ten million bricks, and 20,000 barrels of 
cement. There are 80,000 feet of glass in the roof, by which the whole building is abundantly 
lighted during the daytime, while at night it is brilliantly illuminated by means of the 
electrical light. 

That part of the building which fronts on Forty-second Street is to be occnpied by the 
New York and New Haven Railroad ; that on Central Avenue by the Hudson River and 
Harlem roads. To accommodate the immense number of passengers arriving and departin" 
by these roads there are thirty-one entrances to the building, and the waiting-rooms are 
all that could be desired for comfort and convenience. The building is heated by steam, 
circulated through every part of it by about 7."). 000 feet of pipe. The union of the three 
depots, by which these railroads have a common terminus in this city, will be of <>reat advan- 
tage to the traveling public— Xote by the Author. 
87 



30 APPENDIX IV. 

comparative statement more : The city of New York is divided into twelve 
postal stations, each one having its distinct officer and clerks. Station A, 
situated in the heart of New York, does a larger business than either of the 
cities of Buffalo, New Haven, Hartford, Hudson, or Troy. Such is the epitom- 
ized history, illustrated by the post-office, of the growth and prosperity of the 
city of New York. 



APPENDIX V. 



REMINISCENCES OF McDONALD CLARKE, 

THE MAD POET. 



A writer in the New York Evening Post, for June 2d, 1868, says : 

My reminiscences, going back some forty years, include that somewhat 
noted character McDonald Clarke, a poetic scintillator of somewhat odd fancies, 
who kept the town laughing while he sometimes was starving. 

His poetic figure is before me as I saw it in Broadway. There he stood 
near St. Paul's — his pedestal the curbstone, his pose and style the favorite 
attitude of the classic Napoleon, with arms folded. Yet his head rested not 
upon his bosom, but was lifted to the stars ; on his feet were no two boots or 
shoes, but one boot and one shoe. This eccentricity, more than the character 
of his verses, caused his soubriquet of " The Mad Poet." 

Now, why McDonald favored this oneness of articles generally duplex was 
quite the talk of the town, as much so as the curtailment of the tail of the cur 
of Alcibiades in the days of the ancient Greeks. Alcibiades gave a reason. 
McDonald never did, at least so far as I have heard. There were mystery, 
symbol, poetry, humanity, many social problems in that one boot and one 
shoe. The boys kicked all these to the winds, and said McDonald was 
" cracked." The boot might have been cracked and so might the shoe, but a 
more whole-souled fellow than McDonald I never knew. 

I have some of his verses with which he bespangled the newspapers of the 
time. There have been some poets who wrote for the million, but I am con- 
fident McDonald never obtained half the sum. His topics covered all creation, 
and he was somewhat in the clothes-line. One of his invocations to a heroic 
purchaser to deal with a tailor proclaims that, when he is fitted : 

" His royal Spanish cloak he'll fling 
In the face of the stormy weather." 

Another much admired couplet a little hangs upon the clothes-line, but 
reaches the dignity of a majestic personification. He is walking on the Battery 



-'!'■! A I" P I, N I) I X V . 

Mini somewhai mi Ing up tbi stars with tailors, as poets art apl to do n.-. 
.,i :,j.. till pli adid i am ■ pi Ion 

i iijgbl lifl di b i n i" i msntli i • . 11 mi , 

a 1 1 . i pi ' i . .. ■ . i 

A Bohi ii i li 'ii "i 'I" i 'i' ' "! day would pun thlnfl into thi ground, bj rudely 
1 1 ... i Madame Deraorest made thi month and Tiffanj Bold the star, but 
McDonald delli the poem "Evening, and leaves the rest to the 

, mpathi tli Imag in. ih', ii 

bad rolled on and I bod no1 i Mi Donald I heard Incidentally 

thai i" bad rled ictress, who led bira peculiarlj to (eel that all the 

world was be) stage, and hi only a supernumeroi 

'i nis did ""i altei his benevolent dews of human natu i oi th< most 

i ..I all ordinances In the lecturing ero h tut with a lecture on 

" Love and Matrlmon • bli b captivated the oystei house wits and crltli i ol 
Gotham, who attended with fcbeli "lodyi I ive blm overflow in 

.null, i 

When New JTorh wos i (haunted, be turned bis attention to Brooklyn H" 

. i hi. d ' i 'i Hall, then the fashlonabh plai i foi ui b h . and pla 

carded and ad I i tenslvelj Thi i enlng i ami brlghi and plea ant, 

iiiui Hi i. i in. . person in thi bouse, all told two editors and thi |ai i 

all " dead-heads." I shall nevei forgei thi araaaed loos with which i> 

i i in long lines oi emptj I bes This soon gavi way, however, to the 

med unburst oi bis cheerful aspect, and bi mounted the rostrum and 

pi i i in whoh performance, tretchlng ovei thi spaci oi an bour, wltb 

i mam I emphasis, He came down »i the close, saluted bis three 

auditors, said somi (ooosi things, bul nothing oi dl couragement, and vanished, 

promising 1 e ni I dfl • Of this fai is lecture I recollect but one poini 

He Is decl di nmon Ideas and false taste In regard to feraali 

beaul Heai Mol tonald 

"Tli ai people (says he) who admin detlcati llttli jlrls wltb 

1 1 in 1 1- u .11 i ind inl i imftl feel whlob run In and oul beneath their fur 

belo llki i lien thi lei I ui tin impassioned orator) give me 

tin i/n i ii i Hi ,i waist Ufa a • otton bag <<h<i " foot like a floundi i 

ii. called to see me the nexl day, and foi whai purposi do you supposi ! 

ii w a to proi ■ i" nil .1 iin lecture His bopefa] ami i bulllenl natun 

bad found peolai reasons fop M* Ill-success, which would be overoome on a 

1 1 ond ■ i" ' ni Bi fori • ttling this polnl be drifted of] I'm the by, bow 

did you like the lectun ' I praised Its general tenoi and salleni points, but 

I I nail-. I I III I I .1. I . . I . ,1 III i . I I a in pfl | .!■■■ , , I a li. I 1 1 1 Ill 

I'll. I. 1 1 1 

\ i . I said hi " there It Is, there It Is I [ thought so, I felt so Now, 

Colonel loo] ben There Is "" use trying I ioeal 11 [ am, you know, a 

|.. 1 1, , i . i, 1 1 . i i,i i .a i ui. i ,ii»in i was so, Now \ mi musl bave understood ray 

situation i 1^ ni H i bad come to Brooklyn i pecting i ii the bouse 

orowded 1 1. H 1 1 |.n to domi I Whai did [encounter? 5Te gods I I thought I was 
mill, wrong place] bad go I Into the sohool-housi aftei ii was dismissed Hut 
then "'" yourself, and A , and h (pardon me, all dead-heads), and 



APPENDIX V. 33 

having my gun ready loaded, I thought I would fire it off. But all the while 
running through the lecture was 'room-hire,' 'janitor,' ' bill slicker,' 'no 
money,' and such like things, which took from it all force and spirit. But you 
must hear me again under better circumstances. I must act as I feel. Oh, 
Colonel, sometimes I feel — I feel— I f<-.-l (here he was .searching for a simile 
and got it) like the eternal lightning, and at other times I fee] like a farthing 
candle." Give to this antithesis the roar of a bull of Bashan and the attitude 
of Jove clutching the thunderbolt, dwindled to the gentlesl whisper and the 
posture of a poor devil boring a hole through the floor with his hue linger, and 
you have his graphic delineation. 

He -was dissuaded from a second experiment, 

I am inclined to think it was before this that he upset Johnny Lang and 
several others by a happy retort. Lang, in his New York Gazette, had alluded 
to him as "McDonald Clarke, that fellow with zigzag brains." The insulted 
poet rushed into the sanctum of Colonel Stone, of the Commercial Advertiser, 
blazing with fury. 

" Do you see, Colonel," said he, " what Johnny Lang says of me? lie calls 
me a fellow with zigzag brains." 

" Well, you are," said the Colonel. " That's a happy description |" 

" Oh ! that's very well for you to say," replied McDonald. " I'll take a joke 
from you. But Johnny Lang shall not destroy my well earned reputation. 
Zigzag brains, forsooth! Zigzag brains— think of it. Colonel ! I must have a 
chance to reply to him in your paper." 

" How much space would you want?" said the Colonel. 

"I think I could use him up in a column and a hall," said McDonald. 

"A column and a half!" said the Colonel. " Stuff! you shall liave no such 
space. I'll give you just four lines, and if that will answer fire away, hut not 
a line more." 

The poet, driven thus into a narrow corner, sat down and instantly perpe. 
pet rated the following neat epigram — quite enougn to Immortalize him : 

" I can tell Johnny Lang, in the way of a laugh, 
In reply to hi* rude and unmannerly scrawl, 
That in my humble sense it is better by half, 
To have brains that are zigzag than to have none at all." 

"There, Colonel," said he, "let Johnny Lang put that in his pipe and 
smoke it." 

The last time I met him was two or three years before his death, on the 
familiar curbstone of Broadway. His face was still sunny and genial, hut he 
was rubbing his arms and chest. I ventured to suggesl rheumatism. "<)h, 
no," said he; "I am very well. [ sleep in an attic room in an old and very pictur- 
esque building, through the roof of which, thai has considerably tumbled in, 
I can see the stars. This is delightful, bu1 for the exceptions of showers and 
heavy rains. Last night I got to sleep, and when I woke up I was thoroughly 
drenched. I have since felt these pains over me ; bu1 the water couldn't have 
done the damage. I think it couldn't. Do you think it could ';" 

Simple child of nature. I left him rubbing his arms and laughing at the 

top of his bent. The next I heard of him he was dead, and dead of an injury 
which was more a shock to his sensitive moral nature than the rude blow or 
thrust of the hind who gave it was to his physical frame. 



34 APPENDIX V. 

Why is it that if any man is known to be " cracked," or subject to any illu- 
sion or weakness, all the rest of the world, rejoicing in their pride of reason, 
delight to impose upon him by manifold cruel deceptions ? 

McDonald Clarke had really a handsome face and person, as the fine engrav- 
ing by Peter Maverick from a picture by Inman clearly shows, and beginning 
life as a poet and lover of the human race, fell into the delusion of believing 
that one portion of that race — the gentler sex — was always disposed to fall in 
love with him. His life, therefore, was a series of adventures, in which it is 
pretty certain that the course of true love never did run smooth with him. 

The wicked wags, those false friends who availed themselves of his weak- 
ness, persuaded him by many wiles and false lures, to believe that a lovely 
young lady on Broadway had fallen in love with him. The cross-gartering of 
Mai vol io was nothing to the pranks they made him perform to win the notice 
of the high-born and proud lady. The plot culminated in # an invitation (forged 
of course), to visit the young lady at her mansion. McDonald proceeded 
thither, kid-gloved, and dressed in two boots. The damsel, annoyed and fore- 
warned, had given directions to the servants, if he ever appeared, to thrust him 
from the door, which it is said was done rudely and contumeliously. 

Then came the breaking-up and a Greenwood funeral. For a time an 
unmarked grave stood on the border of the Sylvan Water. Over this was soon 
placed a tomb, surrounded by an iron railing, supplied by the gifts of friends. 
On one of the entablatures are the sentences : " Poor McDonald Clarke " — 
" Let silence gaze, but curse not his grave ;" while his fine face in bas relief, 
on another, makes love to his beautiful neighbor, the Indian Princess Do- 
humme, who occupies the adjoining mound. Another of his verses is also 
fitly carved on his tomb : 

" For what are earthly honors now ? 

He never deemed them worth his care, 
And Death hath set upon his brow 
The wreath he was too proud to wear." 



MUSINGS AT THE HOUSE OP A FRIEND 

In the midst of my troubles and pain 

I welcome this fav'rite retreat, 
Unmolested I here can attain 

A solitude quiet and sweet. 
No troublesome visitor calls. 

No modest inquirers perplex, 
No insolent gazers appall, 

No official civilities vex. 

'Tis no place for repining or sighs, 
No murmurings fall on the ear, 

Duty teaches the blessing to prize, 
Shed for others' misfortune the tear ,- 



APPENDIX V. 

Love, peace, and benevolence meet 

In union delightful and rare ; 
While religion provides them a sweet 

To mix in the cup of their care. 

You may call this a fanciful dream, 

And say it exists not in life, 
You may tell me mortality's stream 

Is ever with concord at strife. 
But God, as if willing to show 

His blessing can quiet the stream, 
Has here made it peacefully flow, 

And experience has proved it no dream. 

To Mrs. Stone — by Pcrcival. 



85 



APPENDIX VI. 



WILLIAM KIDD, THE PIRATE. 



One of the most terrible names in the juvenile literature of England and 
English America, during the last century and a half, has been that of William 
Kidd, the pirate. In the nursery legend, in story, and in song, his name has 
stood forth as the boldest and bloodiest of buccaneers. The terror of the ocean 
when abroad, the story said that he returned from his successive voyages to 
line our coasts with silver and gold, and to renew with the devil a league, 
cemented with the blood of victims shot down, whenever fresh returns of the 
precious metals were to be hidden. According to the superstitions of Connecti- 
cut and Long Island, it was owing to these bloody charms that honest money 
diggers have ever experienced so much difficulty in removing the buried treas- 
ures. Often, indeed, have the lids of the iron chests rung beneath the mattock 
of the stealthy midnight searcher for gold ; but the flashes of sulphurous fires, 
blue and red, and the saucer eyes and chattering teeth of legions of demons, 
have uniformly interposed to frighten the delvers from their posts, and pre- 
serve the treasures from their greedy clutches. But notwithstanding the har- 
rowing sensations connected with the name of Kidd, and his renown as a pirate, 
he was but one of the last and most inconsiderable of that race of sea-robbers, 
who, during a long series of years in the seventeenth century, were the admira- 
tion of the world for their prowess, and its terror for their crimes. 

In the latter part of the seventeenth century Kidd was in command of a mer- 
chant vessel trading between New York and London, and was celebrated for his 
nautical skill and enterprise. The first mention of him in authentic colonial 
history occurs in 1691, in which year the Journals of the New York Assembly 
tell us that on the 18th day of April much credit was allowed to be due him 
" for the many good services done for the province in attending with his ves- 
sels." But in what capacity, or for what object he thus "attended with his 
vessels " does not appear. It was also declared that he " ought to be suitably 
rewarded." Accordingly, on the 14th of May following, it was ordered by the 
same Assembly " that the sum of £150 be paid to Captain Kidd, as a suitable 



APPENDIX VI. 37 

acknowledgment for the important benefits which the Colony had received 
from his services." The presumption is, that those services were in some way 
connected with the protection of the Colonial merchant vessels from the 
attacks of the pirates, who were at that time hovering alonjr the coasts of the 
Northern Colonies. Indeed, the harbor of New York was no stranger to the 
pirate vessels ; and the commerce between them and the " people of figure" in 
this city was not inconsiderable. It was no secret that the pirates were fre- 
quently in the Sound, and were freely supplied with provisions by the inhabit- 
ants of Long Island ; and, still farther, it was well known in the year 1695, that 
the English freebooters had fitted out their vessels in the harbor of New York. 
On the arrival of the pirate vessels from their cruises their goods were openly 
sold in the city, and the conduct of the Colonial Government was such that col- 
lusion, if not direct partnerships, between them and the public authorities was 
not doubted. 

Colonel Fletcher, a poor and profligate man, was Governor at that time. 
He was beyond doubt concerned with the freebooters, as also was William 
Nicoll, a member of the Privy Council. Complaints upon this subject having 
reached England, and the tbrone, in the year of 1695, Fletcher was succeeded 
by the Earl of Bellamont, the appointment being made in the belief that from 
his rank and the weight of his character, he would be able to retrieve the 
character of the Colonial Government. The King declared, in terms, " that he 
thought the Earl a man of resolution and integrity, and with these qualities 
more likely than any other he could think of to put a stop to the growth of 
piracy." Immediately after his lordship had arrived in New York, and 
assumed the direction of the Government, he laid before his Council letters 
from Secretary Vernon and the East India Company, relating to this matter, 
informing the board that he had an affidavit asserting that Fletcher had per- 
mitted the pirates to land their spoils in the province, and that Mr. Nicoll 
bargained for their protections, and received for his services 800 Spanish 
dollars. Nicoll confessed the receipt of the money for protections, but pro- 
tested that it was in virtue of a certain act of the Assembly, for allowing 
privateers on their giving security — denying entirely the receipt of money 
from the pirates. However, on an argument before the Council.it was shown 
by the King's counsel that there was no such act in existence. The Council 
advised that Fletcher should be sent home for trial, and that Nicoll should be 
tried here. But in fact neither trial ever took place, owing, probably, to a 
want of evidence against the accused. On meeting the General Assembly, in 
his opening speech, Lord Bellamont adverted to the subject of piracy in these 
words : 

" It hath been represented to the Government in England, that this prov- 
ince has been a noted receptacle of pirates, and the trade of it under no 
restriction, but the acts of trade violated by the neglect and connivance of 
those whose duty it was to have prevented it." 

Though not brought to trial, as already stated, yet the circumstances were 
so strong against Nicoll that he was suspended from the Council-board, and 
obliged to enter into a recognizance in £2,000 to answer for his conduct in 
regard to the protections. He, however, survived the scandal, and was after- 
ward a successful demagogue in Suffolk County, by the people of which he was 
elected to the Assembly, and by that body to the chair of the speakership. 



3S APPENDIX VI. 

But to return to Kidd. Justice to his memory requires it to be said, that he 
was not, at that period, so far as is known, a pirate himself. Before Lord 
Bellamont sailed from England for his Government, he met with Robert Liv- 
ingston, of New York, the ancestor of the Livingstons of Livingston's Manor, 
with whom he held a conversation respecting the pirates, and the best means 
that could be adopted to put them down. The project of employing a swift 
sailing armed ship of thirty guns, and one hundred and fifty men, to cruise 
against them, was spoken of ; and Livingston recommended his lordship to Kidd, 
as a man of integrity and courage, acquainted with the pirates and their places of 
rendezvous, and as one in all respects fit to be intrusted with the command of 
a vessel engaged in such a difficult service. He had indeed commanded a pri- 
vateer in regular commission, against the pirates in the West Indies, in which 
service he had acquitted himself as a brave and adventurous man. The project 
not being entertained by the Board of Admiralty, a private adventure against 
the pirates was suggested by Mr. Livingston, one-fifth part of the stock of which 
he would take himself, besides becoming security for the good conduct of Kidd. 
The proposition was approved by the King, who became interested to the 
amount of one-tenth ; and the residue of the expense was supplied by Lord 
Chancellor Somers, the Duke of Shrewsbury, the Earls of Romney and Oxford, 
and Sir Edmoud Harrison and others. The ship having been procured and 
equipped, Kidd sailed for New York, under a regular commission, in April, 1G96, 
the direction of the enterprise being committed to the Earl of Bellamont and 
himself. For a time he served faithfully, and with advantage to the commerce 
of the Colonies and mother country, for which services he received much pub- 
lic applause, and another grant from the Colony of 250 pounds. Tradition, 
moreover, says that, on visiting the Government House, he was received with 
public honors, and invited to a seat with the Speaker of the House of Assembly. 

But on his next voyage he stretched away to the Indian Ocean, and turned 
pirate himself. Selecting the island of Madagascar as his principal place of 
rendezvous, and burning his own ship after having captured one that suited 
him better, his depredations upon the commerce of all nations were represented 
to have been great. He is said to have " ranged over the Indian coast from the 
Red Sea to Malabar, and that his depredations extended from the Eastern 
Ocean back along the Atlantic coast of South America, through the Bahamas, 
the whole of the West Indies, and the shores of Long Island." But it will 
presently be seen that this statement must have been an exaggeration, as time 
was not afforded for operations so extensive before his arrest. 

It is beyond doubt true that Long Island Sound contained several of his 
hiding-places. " Kidd's Rock " is well known at Manhasset, upon Long Island, 
to this day. Here he was supposed to have buried some treasures, and many 
have been the attempts of the credulous to find the hidden gold. But it could 
not be found. There is also no doubt that he was wont to hide himself and his 
vessel among those curious rocks in Sachem's Head Harbor called the Thimble 
Islands. I have explored his haunts there, and the pirate's cavern. There is 
also upon one of those rocks, sheltered from the view of the Sound, a beautiful 
artificial excavation, of an oval form, holding perhaps the measure of a barrel, 
called "Kidd's Punch Bowl." It was here, according to the legends of the 
neighborhood, that he used to carouse with his crew. But it is a fact beyond 
controversy, that he was accustomed to anchor his vessel in Gardiner's Bay. On 



APPENDIX VI. 39 

one occasion, in the night, he landed upon Gardiner's Island, and requested Mrs. 
Gardiner to provide a supper for himself and his attendants. Knowing his des- 
perate character, she dared not refuse, and fearing his displeasure, she took 
great pains, especially in roasting a pig. The pirate chief was so pleased with 
her culinary success that, on going away, he presented her with a cradle-blan- 
ket of gold-cloth. It was a velvet, inwrought with gold, and very rich. A 
small piece of it yet remains in the family, which I have seen. On one occa- 
sion when he landed at the island be buried a small casket of gold, silver, and 
precious stones in the presence of Mr. Gardiner, but under the most solemn 
injunctions of secresy. 

Repairing soon afterward to Boston, where Lord Bellamont happened to be 
at the time, he was summoned before his lordship, and directed to give a 
report of his proceedings in the service of his company. Refusing to comply 
with this demand, he was arrested on the 3d of July, 1699, on the charge of 
piracy. He appears to have disclosed the fact of having buried the treasure at 
Gardiner's Island, for the same was demanded by his lordship, and surrendered 
by Mr. Gardiner. I have seen the original receipt for the amount, with the 
different items of the deposit. The amount was by no means large, and affords 
evidence of no such mighty sweepings of the seas as have been told of in story 
and in song. Of gold in coins, gold-dust, and bars, there were 750 ounces. Of 
silver, 506 ounces ; and of precious stones, about 16 ounces. 

Lord Bellamont wrote home for a ship-of-war to carry Kidd to England for 
trial. The Rochester was dispatched upon that service ; but being obliged to 
put back, a general suspicion prevailed in England that there was collusion 
between the pirates and the ministers, and in fact, that they dared not bring 
the sea-robber home for trial, lest it should be discovered that the Lord 
Chancellor and his noble associates in the enterprise were confederates in the 
piracies also. Party spirit ran high, and the opponents of the ministers 
brought a resolution into the House of Commons for excluding from place all 
the partners of Kidd in the original enterprise. And although this resolution was 
voted down, yet the Tories contrived afterward to impeach several of the Whig 
lords upon the charge of having been concerned with Kidd. But the articles 
were not sustained. Meantime Kidd had been taken to England, tried on an 
indictment for piracy and murder, and hung in chains, with six of his crew. 
In addition to the indictment for piracy, he was indicted for the murder of one of 
his own subordinate officers, named Moore, whom he killed in a quarrel, by strik- 
ing him over the head with a bucket. He was convicted upon both charges, 
but protested to the last that he was the victim of conspiracy and perjury. 

But after all, suspicions were entertained by the public that the execution 
was a sham — that the Government dared not to put him to death — and that, to 
avoid disclosures, a man of straw was hung in his place. In proof of this asser- 
tion, it was gravely and strongly alleged that Kidd had been seen alive and 
well, many years afterward, by those who could not be mistaken as to his iden- 
tity. There is little doubt, however, of his having been honestly hung at 
'• Execution Dock," in London, on the 12th of May, 1701. Yet, when compared 
with the nobler buccaneers, Solonois, Morgan, and De Grammont, Kidd must 
have been a pirate upon an insignificant scale — a mere bottle-imp by the side 
of Satan, as portrayed in stupendous grandeur by Milton ! 

The following old ballads were favorite ones for several years after his death : 



40 



APPENDIX VI 



BALLAD I. 

I'll sing you a song that you'll wonder to hear, 
Of a freebooter lucky and bold, 

Of old Captain Kidd— of the man without fear- 
How himself to the devil he sold. 

His ship was a trim one as ever did swim, 
His comrades were hearty and brave — 

Twelve pistols he carried, that freebooter grim, 
And he fearlessly ploughed the wild wave. 

He ploughed for rich harvests, for silver and gold, 

He gathered them all in the deep ; 
And he hollowed his granaries far in the mold, 

Where they lay for the devil to keep. 

Yet never was rover more open of hand 

To the woodsmen so merry and free ; 
For he scattered his coin 'mong the sons of the land 

Whene'er he returned from the sea. 

Yet pay-day at last, though unwished and unbid, 
Come alike to the rude and the civil ; 

And bold Captain Kidd, for the things that he did, 
Was sent by Jack Ketch to the devil. 

BALLAD II. 

My name was Captain Kidd, 
When I sailed, when I sailed ; 
My name was Captain Kidd, 
And so wickedly I did, 
God's laws I did forbid, 
When I sailed, when I sailed. 

I roamed from sound to sound, 
And many a ship I found. 
And them I sunk or burned, 
When I sailed, when I sailed. 

Farewell to young and old, 
All jolly seamen bold; 
You are welcome to my gold, 
For I must die, I must die. 

Farewell, for I must die; 
Then to eternity. 
In hideous misery, 
I must lie, I must lie. 



APPENDIX VII. 



THE JUDICIARY IN THE EARLY DUTCH 
PERIOD. 



BY CHIEF- J USTICE DALY. 



Peter Stuyvesant came out as Governor in 1647. Van Dinclage, who 
had acted as schout fiscal under Van Twiller, came with him, in the capacity 
of vice-director, and Hendrick Van Dyck as schout fiscal. Immediately after 
his arrival, Stuyvesant established a court of justice, of which Van Dinclage 
was made the presiding judge, having associated with him occasionally others 
of the company's officers. The new tribunal was empowered to decide " all 
cases whatsoever," subject only to the restriction of asking the opinion of the 
Governor upon all momentous questions, who reserved to himself the privilege, 
which he frequently exercised, of presiding in the court, whenever he thought 
proper to do so.* 

The desire for a popular form of government became so strong after Stuy- 
vesant's arrival that he found it necessary to make some concession. He 
allowed the commonalty to elect eighteen persons, from whom he selected 
nine, as a permanent body to advise and assist in public affairs. This body, 
who were known as the board of the nine men, had certain judicial powers 
conferred on them. Three of their number attended in rotation upon every 
court day, to whom civil cases were referred as arbitrators, and their decision 
was binding upon the parties, though an appeal lay to the Governor and 
Council, upon the payment of one pound Flemish. These tribunals, with the 
manorial courts before referred to, constituted the judicial organization of the 
colony for several years afterwards. 

The government of Stuyvesant but increased the popular discontent 
Though a man of capacity and integrity, he was unfitted for the place assigned 
him. or his duty as the careful guardian of the pecuniary interests of a com- 

* Breeden Raedt, extracts in 4 Doc. Hist, of N. Y., 69. Albany Rec, 20. 28, 29, 38, 56 to 
61. 2 O'Call., 24 to 31. Brodhead, 467, 523, 532. 



43 APPENDIX VII. 

mercial corporation was inconsistent with the just and politic rule of a people 
like the colonists, who had their own views as to the manner in which a com- 
munity should be governed. It was natural that they should desire to live 
under institutions to which they had been accustomed in Holland, and which, 
whatever might be their advantages or defects, had to them the merit of 
nationality, and were associated with their earliest recollections. This 
Stuyvesant did not, or would not, see. Strongly conservative himself by 
nature, and long used to military rule, he saw in a demand so just and reason- 
able nothing but a desire to break loose from the restraints of lawful authority. 
Though not an unjust man, he felt himself warranted in resorting to any 
means to crush everything in the shape of popular encroachment, and, as he 
was both prompt and energetic, his government became insufferably oppres- 
sive. Before the end of two years he was in open collision, not only with the 
board of nine men, but with the schout fiscal, Van Dyck, and the vice-director, 
Van Dinclage, an enlightened and learned man, and the most influential 
member of his Council. The Council he was enabled to control, but not so 
with the popular body. In one of its members, Adrian Van der Donck, he had 
to cope with a man whose ability and energy was equal to his own. Insti- 
gated by Van der Donck, the board of nine men resolved to send a delegation 
to Holland, but they had no sooner decided upon this step than Stuyvesant 
arrested its projector, seized his papers, and procured a decree of the Council 
removing him from his position as one of the popular representatives. But 
this violent and arbitrary measure did not produce the effect expected. The 
nine men met together, a spirited remonstrance was prepared to the States- 
general, and three of the number, of whom Van der Donck was one, went 
with it as a deputation to Holland. 

This mission was so far successful, that in 1650 a provisional order was 
made by the States-general, which, among other things, decreed, that a Court 
of Justice should be erected in New Netherland, and that a burgher govern- 
ment should be established in New Amsterdam, to consist of two burgomasters, 
five schepens, and a schout, and that in the meantime, or for three years, the 
nine men should continue to exercise judicial .powers in the trial of civil 
causes* This order was resisted by the Amsterdam chamber as a violation of 
the privileges granted by their charter, and Stuyvesant, no doubt under 
instructions, refused to obey it.f When it was known at New Amsterdam 
that Stuyvesant would not comply with the order, the nine men again appealed 
to the home sjovernment, and Van der Donck, who had remained in Holland, 
appeared as their advocate before the States-general. A long struggle ensued, 
during which Stuyvesant grew more violent and unreasonable. He impris- 
oned Van Dinclage for uniting with Van der Donck in a protest to the States- 
general, dismissed the schout fiscal, Van Dyck, from office, for co-operating 
with the nine men, and followed up these arbitrary and illegal acts by equally 
violent measures against other leaders of the popular movement. | The 
Amsterdam chamber, who regarded the establishment of a burgher court as 
likely to prove detrimental to the interests of their commercial monopoly, em- 
ployed every means to counteract the efforts of Van der Donck ; but after 

* Brodhead, 514. 

t 2 O'Call., 210; Brodhead. 540; 2 Doc. History of N. Y. 

', Eiodtaead, 525, 532. 



APPENDIX VII. 43 

maintaining the contest for two years, they at last thought it prudent to yield, 
and signified to Stuyvesant their assent to the wishes of the colonists. The 
inhabitants of New Amsterdam were to be allowed to elect a schout, two 
burgomasters, and five schepens, " as much as possible according to the custom 
of old Amsterdam," and the magistrates thus elected were to compose a muni- 
cipal court of justice, subject to the right of appeal to the Supreme Court of 
the province. 

" We have resolved," they wrote to Stuyvesant, " to permit you hereby to 
erect a Court of Justice (een banck Van Justitie) formed as much as possible 
after the custom of this city, to which end printed copies relative to all the 
law courts here, and their whole government, are transmitted. And we pre 
same that it will be sufficient at first to choose one schout, two burgomasters, 
and five schepens, from all of whose judgment an appeal shall lie to the 
Supreme Council, where definite judgment shall be pronounced."* It was evi- 
dent, from the order of the States-general, that these officers were to be elected 
by the conirnonalty, as was customary in the cities, towns and villages of Hol- 
land, and such would seem to be the direction in the dispatch of the Amsterdam 
Chamber. The language of the dispatch was, perhaps, a little ambiguous, and 
Stuyvesant, putting the construction upon it that conformed most with his 
own views, and which, if erroneous, he perhaps felt would not be unpalatable 
to his employers, resolved to appoint the new magistrates himself. He not only 
determined thus to keep the power in his own hands, but he practically 
defeated the provision that had been made for a city schout, by appointing to 
that office Cornelius Van Tienhoven, a man of depraved and dissolute life, 
exceedingly obnoxious to the colonists, whose only recommendation was the 
ability he had shown in carrying out the measures of his headstrong and arbi- 
trary superior. 

By this means, the two offices of city schout and schout fiscal were united 
in the same person. Stuyvesant even went so far as to refuse to allow the 
new magistrates to appoint their own clerk, though it had been the usage in 
Amsterdam from the time that that city had had a burgomaster, and, as a 
crowning act, he informed the new tribunal that its establishment, or the 
scope of its authority, did not in the slightest degree diminish the power of 
himself and his Council to pass whatever laws or ordinances they pleased for 
the municipal government of the city.f 

On the second of February, 1653, he issued a proclamation appointing as 
burgomasters A rent Van Hatten and Martin Krieger, and as schepens Paul us 
L. Van der Grist, Maximilian Van Gheel, Allard Anthony, Peter W. Cowen- 
hoven and William Beekman. Five days afterwards, the newly appointed 
magistrates assembled ; Van Tienhoven, the schout fiscal, attending in his 
additional capacity of city schout, with Jacob Kip, who had been appointed 
secretary or town clerk, a station he continued to fill for many years after- 
wards. No business was transacted, other than to give notice that the Court 
would meet for "the hearing and determining of all disputes between parties, 
as far as practicable," in the building heretofore called the City Tavern, near 
the Stadt House (City Hall), on every Monday morning at nine o'clock. 

*1 N. Y. Doc. History, 387. 

1 1 N. Y. Rec. of Burgomasters and Schepens, vol. i. Brodhead, 548. 



44 APPENDIX VII 

The Stadt House not being ready on the day appointed, the next meeting 
took place four days afterwards at the Fort, where the Court was duly organ- 
ized for the dispatch of business, and the proceedings opened with prayer; 
the following eloquent extract from which will show the sense entertained by 
these new magistrates of the duties and obligations of the judicial office : 

" We beseech thee, oh ! Fountain of all good gifts, qualify us by thy grace, 
that we may, with fidelity and righteousness, serve in our respective offices. 
To this end enlighten our darkened understandings, that we may be able to 
distinguish the right from the wrong, the truth from falsehood, and that we 
may give pure and uncorrupted decisions, having an eye upon thy Word, a 
sure guide, giving to the simple wisdom and knowledge. Let thy law be a 
lamp unto our feet and a light unto our paths, that we may never turn away 
from righteousness. Deeply impress on all our minds that we are account- 
able not to man, but to God, who seeth and heareth all things. Let all 
respect of persons be far removed from us, that we may award justice unto the 
rich and unto the poor, unto friends and enemies, to residents and to strangers, 
according to the law of truth, and grant that not one of us, in any instance, 
may swerve therefrom ; and as gifts do blind the eyes of the wise and destroy 
the heart, keep, therefore, our hearts in judgment. Grant unto us, also, that 
we may not rashly prejudge any one, but that we patiently hear all parties, 
and give them time and opportunity for defending themselves, in all things 
looking up to Thee and to thy Word for counsel and direction."* 

It was the intention that the municipal government conceded to New 
Amsterdam should conform, as far as practicable, to that of the parent city. 
How essentially Stuyvesant departed from this in the outset has been already 
shown, and his resolving that the burgher government did not diminish the 
right of himself and his Council to regulate municipal affairs, left the precise 
powers of the new tribunal very indefinite and uncertain. It led, at the com- 
mencement, to an organization of the municipal government in many respects 
different from that of Amsterdam, and to great unwillingness at first on the 
part of the burgomasters and schepens to interfere at all in municipal matters. 
In Amsterdam there were four burgomasters, each of whom attended three 
months of the year, in rotation, at the City Hall, for the dispatch of public 
business ; and the schepens, who were nine in number, held the regular court 
of justice, having civil and criminal jurisdiction, which was almost unlimited. 
The duties of the schepens were especially judicial, while those of the schout 
and the burgomasters were chiefly executive, and the three bodies, when assem- 
bled together, constituted a " college," for the enactment of municipal ordi- 
nances and laws, under the title of " The Lords of the Court of the City of 
Amsterdam." There was also a permanent council, composed of thirty-six mem- 
bers, the nature of which need not be explained. f Though this division of 
duties and labors was highly essential in a city of the magnitude of the Dutch 
commercial metropolis, it was not so necessary in a small community like that 
of New Amsterdam, which, at the period in question, could not have embraced 

* 1 N. Y. Ree, of Burg, and Schep., i., 3. 

tJ. Wagenaar-Amsterdamsche Geschiedenissen, 1740. Meyer's Institutions Judiciaires, 
tome iii., livre 5, chap. ii. 253. Ordinances of Amsterdam, vol. ii., p. 695. Vauder Linden, 379. 
SO'C.ill. 210. 



APPENDIX VII. 45 

much over seven hundred inhabitants.* From this cause, perhaps, as well as 
from the uncertainty respecting the precise distribution or extent of their 
duties, occasioned by the notice they had received from Stuyvesant, the newly 
appointed officers assembled together as one body, and in that united capacity 
continued thereafter to discharge legislative, judicial, and executive functions. 
In the towns and villages of Holland the schout was the first officer of the board. 
He convoked the court, and presided at the head of it, but without taking any 
part in its proceedings other than in collecting the votes. His position was some- 
what analogous to that of the speaker or the president of a legislative assem- 
bly, except that he had no vote, though he might express his opinion, and he 
was obliged to quit the bench when he acted as prosecuting officer, the oldest 
burgomaster then presiding in his stead. f In New Amsterdam, however, Arent 
Van Hatten, being the first named as burgomaster, assumed the presidency of 
the courts and after he retired from office the eldest burgomaster continued to 
act in that capacity until 1650, when Stuyvesant ordered that the presidency 
should be changed every three months, which continued until 1060, in which 
year the colonists obtained what they had long petitioned for, a separation of 
the office of city schout from that of the schout fiscal. This separation had in fact 
been made six years before, and a city schout appointed by the Amsterdam 
chamber, but this officer, Jochem T. Kuyter, having been killed in a collision 
with the Indians before he could enter on the duties of his office, Stuyvesant. 
retained the schout fiscal, Van Tienhoven, in the discharge of the duties of city 
schout, and persisted, against the earnest remonstrance of the inhabitants, in 
continuing him and the succeeding schout fiscal, Nicasius de Sille, as city schout, 
until the Amsterdam chamber finally appointed to the post Peter Tonneman, 
who had formerly been schout of a district of Dutch towns on Long Island. 
Tonneman received his appointment in Holland, and when he came out he 
insisted upon his right to the presidency of the court. In this he was sup- 
ported by Stuyvesant, who went personally before the burgomasters and sche- 
pens, and insisted not only that Tonneman should sit at the head of the court, 
but that he should have a vote in all matters in which lie was not a party, a 
privilege never granted to the sellouts in Holland. The burgomasters and 
schepens resisted, bnt after a long and angry discussion, it was finally agreed 
that Tonneman should have what he claimed until the question should be 
determined by the " Lords Majores " in Holland. It does not appear whether any 
further action was had in the matter, but the name of Tonneman was continued 
thereafter upon the records as the chief or presiding officer.^ In 1657 that 
branch of municipal affairs which especially required the discharge of execu- 
tive duties had increased so largely, that the burgomasters organized a sepa- 
rate court, which met every Thursday, to dispose of it.|| In view of the serious 
encroachment made upon their time by the accumulation of duties, or, as they 

* Valentine's History of the City of New York, p. 53. Brodhead, 548. 

t Van Leuwen, book i., chap, i., sec. 21. Meyer's Institutions Jadiciaires, tome iii., livrc 5, 
chap, xi., 253. Vander Linden, 377. Brodhead, G74. 

$ N. Y. Rec. of Burg, and Schep., i. 4 ; ii., 488. 

§ N. Y. Rec. of Burg, and Schep., v. 414, 484. 

I N. Y. Rec. of Burg, and Schep. Ordinances of Burgomasters. 
89 



46 APPENDIX VII. 

expressed it, the impossibility of attending to their private affairs, the burgo- 
masters petitioned Stuyvesant to be released thereafter from attending the 
burgher court, but he refused to grant it, and the court continued in the dis. 
charge of mixed legislative and judicial functions as long as the Dutch held 
possession of the province. 

The proceedings of this tribunal, or as it was denominated, " The Worship- 
full Court of the Schout Burgomaster and Schepens," were all recorded by 
their clerk or secretary ; and as everything that took place before it — the 
nature of the claim, or of the offense, the statements of the parties, the proof 
and the decision of the Court, with the reasons assigned for it — were carefully 
noted and written down, these records supply a full account of the whole 
course of its proceedings, and furnish an interesting exposition of the man- 
ners and habits of the people. Upon perusing them, it is impossible not to be 
struck with the comprehensive knowledge they display of the principles of 
jurisprudence, and with the directness and simplicity with which legal investi- 
gations were conducted. In fact, as a means of ascertaining truth, and of 
doing substantial justice, their mode of proceeding was infinitely superior to 
the more technical and artificial system introduced by their English succes- 
sors. None of these magistrates were of the legal profession. They were all 
engaged in agricultural, trading, or other pursuits, and yet they appear to 
have been well versed in the Dutch law, and to have been thoroughly 
acquainted with the commercial usages, customs, and municipal regulations of 
the city of Amsterdam. This is the more remarkable, as a knowledge of the 
Dutch law at that period was by no means of easy acquisition. Though 
the principles and practice of the civil law prevailed in Holland, it was greatly 
modified by ancient usages ; some of them of feudal origin, others the result of 
free institutions, which had existed from the earliest period; and it had en- 
grafted upon it a number of public regulations or ordinances, emanating from 
the different provinces, as distinct and partly independent sovereignties, which 
had originated either as feudal privileges or sprung up during Spanish domi- 
nation, or were the result of the long struggle and many political changes 
which the Low Countries had passed through before the general establishment 
of free institutions. In every town and village in Holland, moreover, there 
existed usages and customs peculiar to the place, which had the force of law, 
and were not only different in different towns, but frequently directly opposite. 
The Dutch law, in fact, was then a kind of irregular Mosaic, in which might 
be found all the principles as well as the details of a most enlightened system 
of jurisprudence, but in a form so confused as to make it exceedingly difficult 
to master it.* That these magistrates should have had any general or prac- 
tical acquaintance with such a system at all was scarcely to have been 
expected; but that they had is apparent not only from the manner in which 
they disposed of the ordinary controversies that came before them, but in 
their treatment of difficult questions as to the rights of strangers, their 

* H. Fagel and J. C. Van der Hoop. Dissert, de usu juris Romani in Hollandia Hag., 1779. 
F. Van Micris Groot Charterbock der Graaven Van Holland, Leid., 1753-4. Dec-lcn Can en 
Seheltus, Placaat Boek Van de Staaten Generaal Van Holland, en Van Zeelend; J.Deelen, 
edition of L658. Actcs des Etats Generaux de 1600. Recucilles et mis en ordre, par M. 
Gachard, Bruxelles, 1849. Oeuvres de Raepsait, tome iii. Des Droit des Belgis et Gauloia 
Meyer's Institutions Judiciaires, tome iii., livre 5, chap. xi. 



APPENDIX VII 



47 



familiarity with the complicated laws of inheritance, and the knowledge they 
displayed of the maritime law while sitting as a Court of Admiralty. The 
Amsterdam chamber sent out to them the necessary books to guide them as to 
the practices of the courts of Amsterdam, and when the province passed into 
the hands of the English, there was attached to the court a small but very 
select library of legal works, mainly in the Dutch language. There were, 
moreover, men educated to the legal profession, in the colony. Van Dinclage, 
the vice-director, who had acted as schout fiscal for Van T wilier, and chief judge 
of the court established by Stuyvesant, was a doctor of laws; and there is suf- 
ficient known respecting him to warrant the opinion that he was an able and 
accomplished jurist. Van der Donck was admitted to the same honorable 
degree in the University of Leyden, and was afterward an advocate of the 
Supreme Court of Holland.* The schout fiscal, Nicacius de Sille, who acted as 
city schout for four years, is stated in his commission from the Amsterdam 
chamber to be " a man well versed in the law."f 

In addition to these, there were several notaries. Dirk Van Schellyne, who 
came out in 1641, had previously practised at the Hague ; David Provoost dis- 
charged the duties of notary for some years before Schellyne's arrival ;\ and 
there was another notary named Matthias de Vos.§ Under the civil law as it 
prevailed in Holland, a considerable part of the proceedings in a cause, if it 
was seriously contested, was conducted by the notary, who was required, at 
least, to be well versed in the manner of carrying on legal controversies ; and 
as he was frequently consulted by suitors for advice as to their rights and lia- 
bilities, he was generally well-informed and capable of giving it.| Such was 
the case with Van Schellyne, who, from the records he has left, was evidently 
an experienced and skillful practitioner. He was not only connected with the 
court in the discharge of his duties as notary, but he was appointed by it, in 
16G5, high constable (conchergio).^f All of these men must have had more or 
less to do with establishing the mode of legal proceeding, and of advising and 
guiding the magistrates. Van Schellyne and De Sille were in constant com- 
munication with them, Van Dinclage must have brought into use the forms of 
legal procedure in the court over which he had presided, and Van der Donck 
was one of the chief getters-up of the new tribunal ; and though he survived 
its creation but two years, he was no doubt advised with and consulted in 
respect to its organization, and as to the mode in which it was conducted. We 
find him, in fact, the very year that it was established, claiming its protection 
as a " citizen and burgher " against the menaces of Stuyvesant.** The court 
was required, in all its determinations, to regard as paramount law all regula- 
tions established by or instructions received from the Chamber of Amsterdam 
or the College of Nineteen, for the government of the colony. Next, all edicts 
or ordinances duly established by the Governor and Council ; then the usages, 

* 2 O'Call., 550. 

t Brodhead, 561. 5 N. Y. Rec. of Burg, and Schep., 5. 

% 3 N. Y. Rec. of Burg, and Schep., 101. 

§ 5 N. Y. Rec. of Burg, and Schep., 6-12. 

II S. Van Leu wen, Practyk der Notarissen. Rott., 1742. 

1 N. Y. Rec. of Bnrg. and Schep., ii. 642. 

** N. Y. Rec. of Burg, and Schep., 1. 321. 



48 APPENDIX VII. 

customs, or laws prevailing in the city of Amsterdam, and wliere they furnished 
no guide, the law of the fatherland, by which was more particularly understood 
the ordinances of the province of Holland, and of the States-general, and the 
civil law as it prevailed in the Netherlands, or, as it is denominated by jurists, 
the Roman Dutch law. 

The burgomaster and schepens had constantly demanded from Stuyvesant 
that they should be allowed to nominate a double number of persons, from 
whom their successors should be chosen, as a partial approximation to the 
privileges enjoyed in the Netherlands, or, as they expressed it, " in the beloved 
city of Amsterdam,"* but he continued the old magistrates, merely supplying 
vacancies, until 1656, when he consented, with, the proviso that the old magis- 
trates should always be considered as renominated, which left it in his power 
to continue them precisely as he had done before. The condition was accepted, 
and the nominations made ; but Stuyvesant. being displeased with some of the 
new names, continued the old magistrates, merely supplying vacancies until 
the time for reappointment came around, in 1658, when he at last gave way, 
and selected, from a double list of names presented to him, the magistrates 
who were to serve. The burgomaster and schepens then selected continued 
in office until 1660, when a new nomination and appointment was made every 
year in the month of February,! which was continued thereafter, until the 
English changed the organization of the court. All these magistrates, as far 
as can be gathered, were men of intelligence, of independence, and, with one 
or two exceptions, of high moral character, evincing in the discharge of their 
duties, and especially in those of a judicial nature, that unswerving adhesion 
to establish rules and customs, that sterling good sense, and strong love of 
justice, which constitute so marked a feature in the Dutch national character. 

The right which Stuyvesant claimed, of interfering in the administration of 
city matters, appears to have been confined to the general regulation of the 
city's affairs, and not to the administration of justice between particular indi- 
viduals or as against public offenders. Upon the former matter, he and the 
burgomaster and the schepens came frequently in collision ; and he sometimes 
gave vent to his anger at their insolence and presumption, by a public procla- 
mation, in which they were contemptuously referred to as " the little bench of 
justice,":): but he seems to have abstained from any interference with their 
judicial powers. At first he was disposed to limit their action in criminal 
cases, but finally he suffered them to exercise unlimited criminal and civil 
jurisdiction, except the infliction of punishment in capital cases. The mode 
of proceeding in civil cases was simple and summary. The court was held 
once every fortnight, though frequently once every week, upon a stated way. 
Attached to the court was an officer known as the court messenger, who, at 
the verbal request of the party aggrieved, summoned the adverse party to 
appear at the next court-day. If the defendant failed to appear, he incurred 
the cost of the summons, lost the right to make any objection to the jurisdic- 
tion of the court, and a new citation was issued. If he failed again, he incurred 

* New Amsterdam Rec, 359, 373, 375. 
t Rec. of N. Y. Burgomasters and Schepens, iv., 299. 

t Documents of Stuyvesant' s Council in N. Y. Record of Burgomasters and Schepens, 
26tb of February, 1654. 



APPENDIX VII. 49 

additional costs, lost the right to make all " dilatory exceptions," or to adjourn 
or delay the proceeding. He was then cited for the third time, and if he did 
not then appear, the court proceeded to hear the case and give judgment, and 
he was cut off from all right of appeal or review. But if, upon hearing the 
plaintiff's case, the court deemed the presence of the defendant essential, they 
might issue a fourth citation, in the nature of an arrest, and compel his appear- 
ance. Parties, however, usually attended upon the first citation. The plain- 
tiff stated his case, and the defendant made his answer. If they differed in a 
fact which the court thought material, either party might be put to an oath, 
and, if they were still in conflict, the court might require the examination of 
witnesses, and the matter was adjourned until the next court-day, during 
which time either party might take the depositions of his witnesses before a 
notary, or the court might require that the witnesses should be produced, to 
be examined orally before it, at the adjourned day, under oath. But, most 
generally, the matter was disposed of upon the first hearing of the parties, 
without resorting to the oath or the examination of witnesses. If it was intri- 
cate, or it was difficult to get at the truth, it was the constant practice to refer 
the cause to arbitrators, who were always instructed to bring about a recon- 
ciliation between the parties if they could ; and this was not confined merely 
to cases of disputes about accounts, or to differences growing out of contracts, 
but it extended to nearly every kind of case that came before the court. The 
arbitrators were left to the choice of the litigants, or appointed by the court, 
or one of the schepens was directed to take the matter in hand and try and 
reconcile the contestants. If no reconciliation could be effected, or the parties 
would not submit to the final determination or conclusion of the arbitrators, 
the dissatisfied party might again bring the matter before the court, where it 
was finally disposed of. These references were frequent upon every court- 
day. In fact, the chief business of this tribunal was, in acting as a court of 
reconciliation ; and, it is worthy of remark, that, though the amount involved 
was frequently considerable or the matter in dispute highly important, 
appeals to the court from the decision of the arbitrators were exceedingly 
rare. 

Indeed, the first appeal to be found upon the records was brought by a 
stranger.* There was a more formal mode of proceeding, if parties preferred 
it. After the plaintiff had stated his case, the defendant might require him to 
put it in writing, and a day was given for that purpose. The defendant was 
then obliged to answer in writing, to which the plaintiff could reply, and the 
defendant rejoin, and there ended the pleadings. Each party then went before 
the notary of his choice, and had the depositions of his witnesses reduced to 
writing, a draft or copy of which was retained by the notary, in a book kept 
by him for the purpose ; and where it was neces.sary, a commission, or, as it 
was called, a requisitory letter, might be obtained for the examination upon 
interrogation of witnesses residing beyond the court's jurisdiction, who were 
examined before the judges of the local court where the witness resided, who 
sealed up the examination, and transmitted it to the court having jurisdiction 
of the cause. When the proofs were complete, they were added to the plead- 

* N. Y. Rec. of Burgomasters and Schepens, i., 188, 231 ii., 10, 176; iii., 188 ; v., 190; vi.. 
174; vii., 180. 



50 APPENDIX VII. 

ings, the whole constituting what was called the memorial, which was 
submitted to the court, either party being at liberty to inspect it, and having 
the right, within a certain time, to have any of the witnesses of his adversary 
examined upon cross-interrogatories, in respect to anything contained in cheir 
deposition, which was material, or to have additional witnesses examined on 
his own behalf in reply ; the manner of conducting which subsequent examin- 
ation was arranged by the judge. But this mode of proceeding being dilatory 
and expensive was rarely resorted to. The majority of cases were refeired to 
arbitration, or disposed of upon a summary hearing of the parties before the 
magistrates ; and it may be important to note, in respect to the rules of evi- 
dence, that whenever a paper or document was produced, purporting or avowed 
to be in the handwriting of a party, it was assumed to be his handwriting, 
unless he denied the fact under oath ; and that merchants or traders might 
always exhibit their books in evidence, where it was acknowledged or proved 
that there had been a dealing between the parties, or that the article had been 
delivered, provided they were regularly kept with the proper distinction of 
persons, things, year, month, and day — a practice which, in the States of New 
Jersey and New York, survived these Dutch tribunals, and has at the present 
day, with certain qualifications or restrictions, extended to nearly every State 
in the Union. Full credit was given to all such books, especially where they 
were strengthened by oath, or confirmed by the death of the parties, and also 
to memorandums made between parties by sworn brokers. A leading distinc- 
tion in evidence was also made between what was termed full proof, as where 
a fact was declared by two credible witnesses, as of their own knowledge, or it 
was proved by a document or written paper, and half proof, as where it rested 
upon the positive declaration of knowledge by one witness only, under which 
latter head, as weak but assisting evidence, hearsay was allowed, which, in 
some instances, as in the case of certain dying declarations, was admitted to 
the force of full proof; and as the determining of a case upon the evidence of 
witnesses was left to the judges, very discriminating and nice distinctions were 
made in adjusting or weighing its relative force or value.* 

When judgment was rendered against a defendant for a sum of money, 
time was given for payment, usually fourteen days, for the discharge of one 
half, and the remainder in a month. If, at the expiration of that time, he did 
not comply, application was made to the court, and the schout, or usually the 
court messenger, went to the delinquent, and exhibiting a copy of the sentence 
and his wand of office, which was a bunch of thorns, summoned him to make 
satisfaction in twenty-four hours. If at the expiration of that time the amount 
was not paid, the delinquent was again summoned to pay within twenty-four 
hours, which involved additional expense ; and if, when that time expired, he 
was still in default, the messenger, in the presence of a schepen, took into 
custody the debtor's movable goods, which he detained for six days, within 
which time they might be redeemed on payment of the expenses. If they 
were not redeemed, notice was then given by publicly announcing upon a 
Sunday, and upon a law day, that they would be sold, and at the next law or 
market day they were disposed of by auction. If it was necessary to levy 

* Rec. of N. Y. Burs- an d Schep., vii., viii. Meyer's Institutions Judiciaires, chap. 14, 387, 
Van Leuwen, book v., chap. xiii. to xx. and xxiii. 



APPENDIX VII. 51 

upon or sell real estate, or what in the civil law is termed immovable property, 
a longer term was allowed, and greater formalities were required. The 
manner of selling it was peculiar. The officer lighted a candle, and the 
bidding went on while it was burning, and he who had offered the most at the 
extinction of the candle was declared the purchaser, which differed from the 
ordinary mode in a Dutch auction, where a public offer of the property is made 
at a price beyond its real value, which is gradually lowered or diminished 
until one of the company agrees to take it.* The civil business of the court 
was large and varied, such as actions for the recovery of debts, which were 
generally cases of disputed accounts, or of misunderstanding between the 
parties, for in truth the probity and punctuality of the Dutch suits by creditors 
to enforce payments from delinquent debtors formed but a small proportion in 
the general mass of this business. There were proceedings by attachments 
against the property of absconding debtors or of non-residents or foreigners, 
on which security was required of the debtor intending to depart, to release 
the property from the attachment ; actions to recover the possession of land, or 
to settle boundaries, a proceeding somewhat similar to the relief afforded by 
our courts of equity upon a confusion of boundaries ; actions to recover 
damages for injuries to land or to personal property, or to recover specific 
personal property as in replevin, or its value as in trover. 

Actions for freight, for seamen's wages, for rent, for breach of promise of 
marriage, where the performance of the contract was enforced by imprison- 
ment ; for separation between man and wife, in which case the children were 
equally allotted to the parties, and the property divided.f after the payment of 
debts ; proceedings in bastardy cases, in which the male was required to give 
security for the support of the child, and in which both delinquents might be 
punished by fine or imprisonment. Actions for assault and battery, and for 
defamation, which were quasi-criminal proceedings, punishable by fine and 
imprisonment, or both, though the detainer was generally discharged upon 
making a solemn public recantation before the court, sometimes upon his 
knees, asking pardon of God and of the injured party. Pecuniary compensa- 
tion for injuries to person or character could not be enforced; though cases 
occurred in which the defendant was discharged, it appearing that he had made 
compensation to the other party in money or goods. And, from the frequent 
application made to the court for redress in cases of defamation, detraction 
would seem to have been a vice to which the inhabitants were particularly 
prone. 

The court also acted as a court of admiralty, and as a court of probate, in 
taking proof of last wills and testaments, and in appointing curators to take 
charge of the estates of widows and orphans. Application was made to Stuy- 
vesant for liberty to establish an orphan-house, similar to the celebrated insti- 
tutions which exist throughout Holland. He did not think that such an estab- 
lishment was necessary, but he afterward assented to the appointment of orphan- 
masters, and those officers acted in aid of the court. Some of its proceedings 
in the exercise of this branch of its jurisdiction will serve to illustrate how 
tenaciously the Dutch clung to old forms or legal ceremonies, as, where a 

* Rec. of N. Y. Burg, and Schep., i. of 204, 250 ; v 207, 570. Van Lcuwen, book 5, chap. 25. 
t Rec. of N. Y. Burg, and Schep., iv., 1G59. Rec. of Mayor's Court, i., 533. 



52 APPENDIX VII. 

widow, to relieve herself from certain obligations, desired to renounce her hus- 
band's estate, it is, in all such cases, recorded, that the intestate's estate "has 
been kicked away by his wife with the foot," and that she has duly " laid the 
key on the coffin."* The court also exercised a peculiar jurisdiction, that of 
summoning parents or guardians before them, who, without sufficient cause, 
withheld assent to the marriage of their children or wards, and of compelling 
them to give it.f It also granted passports to strangers, or conferred on them 
the burgher right, a distinction which, now that it has ceased to be attended 
with any practical advantage, is still kept up in the custom of tendering or pre- 
senting the freedom of the city to strangers, as a mark of respect. It may not 
be uninterestiug, moreover, to state, that the origin of a fee bill, for regulating, 
by a fixed and positive provision of law, the costs of attorneys and other public 
officers, is to be traced to Stuyvesant. On the 25th of January, 1G58, he put 
forth what is known in Holland as a placard, that is, a proclamation or ordi- 
nance emanating from some legislative or executive authority, having the 
force of law, by which he established a regular tariff of fees. In England, the 
fees of attorneys and other officers of the court has always been regulated by 
the court, and not by any public act. In New York, however, the fees of pub- 
lic officers have been a matter of statute regulation from a very early period. 
Ten or twelve years after the restoration of the province to the English, they 
were regulated by an ordinance of the Governor, and afterward by acts of the 
General Assembly ; and there is every reason to believe that the practice, 
especially as respects the fees of attorneys and officers of the court, was derived 
from the Dutch. £ 

A copy of Stuyvesant's ordinance remains in the records of the burgomas- 
ter and schepens, and as the preamble to the document is of interest as a legal 
curiosity, we shall take the liberty to insert it : " Whereas the Director-general 
and Council of New Netherland have sufficient evidence, from their own expe- 
rience, in certain bills of costs which have been exhibited to them, as well as 
by the remonstrances and complaints which have been presented to them by 
others, of the exactions of scriveners, notaries, clerks, and other licensed per- 
sons, in demanding and collecting from contending persons excessively large 
fees and money, for writing for almost all sorts of instruments, to the manifest, 
yea, insufferable expense of judgments and judicial costs, some of whom are 
led by their covetousness and avarice so far as to be ashamed to make a 
bill or specify the fees they demand, but ask or extort a sum in gross. There- 
fore, to provide for the better and more easy administration of justice, the 
Director-general and Council do enact," etc. ; after which follow provisions 
requiring the licensing of the officer entitled to take the fees, the keeping of a 
record of all fees charged by them, and prohibiting champerty and other 
abuses. It is then provided, that the officers enumerated shall serve the poor 
gratis, for God's sake, but may take from the wealthy the fees specified. Each 
particular service is then enumerated in the manner of our former fee bills, 
with the number of stivers allowed for each. Among the provisions is the 

* Rec. of N. Y. Burg, and Schep., ii., 323. 

t Rec. of N. Y. Burg, and Schep., vols, i., ii., iii., iv., v., vi. 

X Ordinance and Table of Fees in first edition of the Colonial Laws, by Bradford, 1694 ; 
Charter Book and Acts of Assembly of 1683, in office of Secretary of State ; Laws of 1709, ordi 
nance regulating fees. 



APPENDIX VII. 53 

following entry : " No drinking, treats, presents, gifts, or doucers shall be 
inserted in any bill, or demanded;" and the ordinance concludes by directing 
that it shall be read once every year in the court, upon a day specified, to the 
officers enumerated, who were thereupon to be sworn faithfully to observe it ; 
any officer being subject, for a violation of- its provisions, to a fine of fifty 
guilders, or the loss of his office* 

In criminal cases, the schout prosecuted as plaintiff on behalf of the community. 
At his requisition, and upon the inspection by a magistrate of evidence sufficient 
to warrant a belief that an offense had been committed, the offender might be 
arrested or summoned according to the discretion of the magistrate ; though 
where the culprit was detected in the actual perpetration of the deed, or where, 
in the judgment of the schout, there was strong ground of suspicion against 
him, and, in his opinion, the public interest demanded it, he might direct his 
immediate arrest ; but in all such cases the schout was obliged to give notice 
of the arrest to the magistrate within twenty-four hours, who was thereupon 
bound to investigate the matter — a provision that practically dispensed with 
the necessity of the writ of habeas corpus, so familiar in the history of the 
English law.f Bail was allowed, except in cases of murder, rape, arson, or 
treason. There were two modes of trying the prisoner ; either publicly upon 
general evidence, which was the ordinary mode, or by examining him secretly 
in the presence of two schepens, in which written interrogatories were pro- 
pounded to the prisoner, to which he was obliged to return categorical answers. 
The Dutch law then adhering to the general policy of the civil law in respect 
to extorting confessions from offenders, and making use of the torture and of 
all those inquisitorial aids and appliances which have cast such a blemish upon 
the criminal jurisprudence of Europe.:}: 

The torture, however, was not used, except where the presumptive proof 
amounted almost to a certainty ; and but one case has been found upon the 
records in which this cruel and unnecessary test was resorted to. Criminal 
prosecutions were not frequent, nor were the offenses generally of a grave 
character. The punishments were by fine, which were distributed in three 
equal parts, to the schout, to the court, and to the poor ; by imprisonment, 
whipping, the pillory, banishment from the city or the province, or death, 
which, however, could not be inflicted without the concurrence of the Governor 
and his Council. § 

Courts of the same popular character were established upon Long Island, || 
shortly after the erection of the one at New Amsterdam. 

A court with two schepens existed at Breuklin (Brooklyn) before 1654, 
which in that year was increased to four schepens. There was one at Midwout 
(Flatbush), with three schepens, and another at Amersfoort (Flatlands). 
David Provoost, who had been a notary at New Amsterdam, was made schout 
of Breuklin, and a district court was established, composed of the schout of 

* Placards of Stuyvesant in Rec. of JT. Y. Burg, and Schep. 
t Ordinances of Amsterdam, p. 46, and seq. Ed. of 1644. 

i La Practique et Eucheridon des Causes Criminills, Louvain, 1555. Van Leuwen, book 5, 
chaps. 27, 28. 

§ Rec. of N. Y. Burg, and Schep., iv., 141. 

J Thompson's History of Long Island, 96. 2 O'Call. 313, 323. 
90 



54 APPENDIX VII. 

Breuklin, and of delegates from these three tribunals, which was continued 
until 1661. 

In that year similar courts were established at Boswyck (Bushwick), and 
at New Utrecht, and the whole were formed into a district known as " the five 
Dutch towns," to which there was attached one sellout, residing at Breuklin, 
each town having its separate courts.* Courts were also established by virtue 
of a grant from Stuyvesant among the English settlers at Carorasset (Jamaica), 
in 1656, f and at Middleburgh (Newtown), in 16594 I Q 1652 Stuyvesant, by 
the simple exercise of his prerogative, established a court at Beverwyck 
(Albany), independent of the Patroon's Court of Raensellervyck.g It was held 
at the house of the vice-director, upon the second floor, in a room directly 
under the roof, without a chimney, and to which access was had, by a straight 
ladder, through a trap-door. The courts thus enumerated, including the 
patroon courts already referred to and the Supreme or Appellate Court at New 
Amsterdam, composed of the Governor and Council, constituted the judicial 
tribunals of New Netherland, until the colony passed into the hands of 
the English. 

* Brodhead, 580. 

t Thompson's History of Long Island, 96. 

$ Riker's Annals of Newtown. 

§ Albany Rec, 183. Records of Mortgages, Albany, book A. 2 O'Call., 183. 



APPENDIX VIII. 



THE FIREMAN'S LYCEUM. 

LETTER FROM COLONEL T. BAILEY MYERS. 



Fireman's Lyceum, 127 Mercer Street, ) 
New York City, December 1st, 1871. ) 

Dear Sir — In compliance with your request that I should send you a hrief 
historical sketch of the origin and scope of the Fireman's Lyceum, I give you a 
few facts, which I trust will cover^the ground. The change from the Volun- 
teer to the Paid Department involved new duties imposed upon a few men 
selected to take the place of many, whose whole time belonged to the public, 
and was spent at the apparatus-houses waiting for duty. Idleness in quarters, 
in military life, is an evil which has been apparent in every service, and under 
the new system of a paid department, the life of the fireman nearly assimilated 
to that of a soldier in garrison. How to occupy the time of the men while 
waiting for the alarm-signal which might at any moment summon the com- 
pany to duty, became at an early day a subject for consideration with the Board 
of Commissioners. The connection of some industrial pursuit with the duty, 
as is the case in other countries, which, while lessening the expenses of the 
department, would employ the time of the men, was considered as a means of 
affording the needed occupation ; but for reasons on which it is not necessary 
to enlarge, that course was deemed at present impracticable, especially in the 
face of a constant agitation by local politicians (seeking votes amongst the 
force), of an increase of the pay of the firemen from $1,000 to $1,200 per annum 
a proposition always popular with the men, and not objectionable to legislatures 
more intent on gratifying their colleagues (when it could be done at the 
expense of the tax-payers of the city alone, whom they apparently represent) 
than on an economical administration of public affairs ; and therefore difficult 
to be opposed by commissioners themselves holding office by a feeble tenure 
and subject at any time to be legislated out of their control. 

Under the new system the Department was placed upon a semi-military 



58 a P P E N D I X V I I I . 

basis, the strictest discipline preserved in service or in quarters, and requisitions, 
reports, and other written forms introduced, involving a large amount of labor 
and requiring clerical skill in the officers not heretofore generally necessary. 
For many of these strict military details, unpopular and subjects for ridicule at 
the time, as being in direct opposition to the personal independence and licensed 
freedom of the volunteer system, and necessarily incident to unpaid serv- 
ice, but which have tended greatly to the present efficiency and compactness 
of the force, the public are indebted to the perseverance and talent for organi- 
zation possessed by General Shaler, with whom they originated, and who urged 
the necessity of their adoption. They are -now sanctioned by usage, and are not 
likely to be abandoned. Their effect has been to reduce the material of the 
Department to the efficiency and prompt, quiet, concerted action of regular bat- 
teries of artillery, with the substitution of the apparatus for field-pieces. These 
changes necessarily called the attention of the Board to the means of elevating 
the educational standard of the men. 

After much consideration the Board, on the 27th of December, 1867, passed 
a resolution authorizing me, as a member of the Board, to take possession of 
the large hall above the head-quarter offices of the Department, and to organize 
a lyceum and library for the use of the men, provided the same should be done 
without expense to the public. In compliance with this resolution I proceeded at 
once to interest the insurance companies and a few personal friends in the enter- 
prise, and soon secured the moderate sum of money necessary to accomplish 
it. To do this it was necessary to husband our resources, and make our pur- 
chases at book sales only, which were attended for that purpose very faithfully 
by Mr. C. E. Gildersleve, at that time secretary of the Board. Subsequently, as 
the collection increased, a formal trust was created, by which I hold the prop- 
erty so acquired for the use of the firemen of the city of New York. The col- 
lection of books has gradually increased, until, at the present time, it includes 
4,873 volumes belonging to the library, and 1,500 deposited for reference by 
the trustee.. The cases in which these books are contained are of walnut, with 
sliding wire-doors and improved fastenings, and are the work of the men of the 
Department, and compare very favorably with those in any public library — 
the materials for these cases is the only expense to which the Department has 
been in any way subjected. The furniture, some of which is antique, and all 
suitable to the use, together with a collection of curiously engraved portraits of 
distinguished Americans, appropriate views, historical documents, autographs, 
maps, Revolutionary currency, &c, &c, have been deposited in the library for 
its use from the private collection of the trustee. To this has been added an 
engine in use by the Department early in the century, and various flags, 
lanterns, certificates, obsolete implements and apparatus, together forming a 
not uninteresting collection, and intended to remind the men not only of the 
past achievements of the Department, but also of the great men, and remark- 
able events connected with the general history of the country, and which is 
constantly increasing by the contributions of old firemen and others. The 
library is divided into chapters of geography and travel, history, biography, 
natural science, and carefully selected -fiction, and includes such works as are 
most likely to entertain and improve the leisure hours of the men. Mr. Burns, 
the librarian, attends at all hours of the day, and the officers and men are ena- 
bled to draw such books as they may select from the printed catalogues for use 



APPENDIX VIII. 57 

at their quarters, which is generally done through one member representing his 
company. The books have been largely and steadily used, about two hundred 
volumes being drawn in each month, and they afford great satisfaction to the 
members. It is scarcely necessary to say that there are some of the older 
members who cannot avail themselves of the use of books from the want of 
education, but in the case of all the appointments made for the last four years j 
to be able to read has been an indispensable requisite in a department where 
every member is eligible as a candidate for competitive examination for officers, 
in which position these qualifications are absolutely necessary. The Lyceum 
room, which is also used for the weekly trial terms held by the Board, is con- 
stantly resorted to by strangers and visitors, as a pioneer effort in the way of a 
Department Library. The Lyceum was formally dedicated on the 27th of 
December last, in the presence of a large audience, on which occasion Chief- 
Justice Daly delivered an able address, and the Bennett Gold Medal — for the 
the endowment of which Mr. James Gordon Bennett had intrusted me with 
one thousand dollars, and which is held in trust for that purpose by Messrs. 
James M. McLean, Robert S. Hone (whom I associated with me), and myself, as 
trustees — was conferred on two meritorious officers of the Department for 
gallant efforts in the cause of humanity in saving life. 

In giving you, as requested, the particulars of this little collection, I trust 
I have not made more than the necessary allusion to the part I have had in its 
formation, for which I have been amply rewarded by the success it has attained, 
and the evidences of the good it has already accomplished ; and I sincerely trust 
that in whatever vicissitudes the Department may in the future be placed, and 
by whomsoever controlled, the Lyceum will continue to be the subject of their 
care, and the same facilities afforded to its trustee to make it an object of 
instruction and amusement to the gallant and useful body of men for whose 
benefit it was founded. 

Very truly, your obedient servant, 

T. BAILEY MYERS. 
Wm. L. Stone, Esq., New York City. 



APPENDIX IX. 



HALL OF RECORDS, 

FORMERLY THE DEBTORS' PRISON. 



[From the Evening Post, of December 14th, 1871.] 

The community was startled a few days ago by the announcement that the 
Grand Jury had found an indictment against the Hall of Records, on account 
of its manifest unfitness as a repository of the public papers. It was generally 
supposed that the recent repairs, for which, of course, the city paid, had put 
the building in good condition, and a knowledge that records of such value as 
those relating to the property of this city were in danger caused much 
uneasiness. We propose to give, therefore, a brief history of the building in 
question, with a statement of its contents and the amount of money recently 
expended on it. 

The house was erected as a jail long before the Revolutionary war. It was 
known for many years as the "New Jail," prisoners having formerly been 
confined in a building at the corner of Dock Street and Coenties Slip, and also 
in the basement and attic of the City Hall, in Wall Street. The structure was 
originally almost square, considerably smaller than at present, and three 
stories in height. Its walls were of rough stone, and it was surmounted by a 
large cupola rising from the center of the roof. In January, 1764, the " New 
Jail " was the scene of a riot. Near it, on the northern side of the Park, or 
" The Fields," as it was then called, ran a long row of wooden barracks, where 
the British troops were quartered. One Sunday evening a large party of the 
soldiers, armed with muskets and axes, made an attack on the jail for the 
purpose of rescuing a certain Major Rogers, who was there imprisoned for debt. 
After maltreating the jailer for refusing to give up the keys, they forced the 
locks of all the doors in the building, and would have released all the prison- 
ers had not most of the latter preferred to remain where they were. The 
disturbance, which occasioned great excitement and alarm in the city, was 
terminated by the intervention of the militia. During the Revolution, after 
the occupation of the city by the British, the building became known as the 



APPENDIX IX. 59 

" Provost," from the fact that it was under the charge of the notorious William 
Cunningham, the British provost-marshal. Cunningham's quarters were on 
the right of the entrance, and the guard-room on the left. Two sentinels were 
stationed at the entrance night and day, and numerous others were posted 
through the building, which was then used chiefly for the confinement of 
captive patriots. The main room on the second floor was called " Congress 
Hall," and was appropriated to prisoners of the higher class, who were here so 
densely packed together that, it is said, when they lay on the floor at night 
the men could not change their posture unless the same movement was made 
by all simultaneously. In addition to this hardship, they were half-starved and 
otherwise shamefully abused ; being given impure water when abundance of 
good was at hand, neglected in sickness and denied all intercourse with their 
relatives and friends. Two pounds of hard biscuit and two pounds of raw salt 
pork a week were the allowance of food for each man, without fuel for cooking. 
Among the prisoners thus treated here were Ethan Allen, Judge Fell, of New 
Jersey, and other prominent persons. 

After the Revolution the building was used as a prison for debtors, common 
felons being confined in the old Bridewell, also in City Hall Square, which was 
erected in 1775 and torn down in 1838. On the first floor three wards for 
prisoners were ranged on each side of a long corridor passing through the 
center, and the second story was similarly arranged, with the exception that 
the greater part of one side was fitted up as a chapel, where prayers were said 
every Thursday. A watchman was kept in the belfry to look out for fires, and 
in consequence the jail bell was always the first rung when an alarm was given. 
In this event also a long pole with a lantern was extended from the belfry in 
the direction of the fire, thus guiding the firemen and citizens generally to the 
place where their services were needed. This lantern-pole was known as the 
" pointer," and its direction was always the first subject of inquiry when the 
fire-bells rang. When the jail was remodeled for other purposes, the alarm 
bell so long connected with it was placed upon the Bridewell, and on the 
destruction of the latter building, being held in high regard by the firemen of 
the time, it was removed to the roof of the house of the Naiad Hose Company, 
in Beaver Street, with which it was destroyed in the great fire of 1845. 

In June, 1830, when the jail contained only thirty -five debtors, the Common 
Council received a communication from Jameson Cox. the Register, calling 
attention to the need of providing a fire-proof building for the safe keeping of 
the public records. The subject was referred to a committee, in accordance 
with whose report, in the July following, the Common Council decided to 
remodel the Debtors' Prison as a building for the Register's and other count v 
offices, and voted an appropriation of $15,000 for that purpose, Several other 
appropriations were subsequently made, amounting to about $15,000 more. 
The building was reduced in height by one story, the cupola torn down and 
the roof covered with copper. A portico was added at each end, supported by 
3ix massive columns of marble from the Sing Sing quarries. The interior was 
extensively altered, and the exterior was stuccoed in imitation of marble. 
The Temple of Diana at Ephesus was taken as the model of the structure, 
which was considered at the time of its completion as the most perfect piece of 
architecture in the city. During the cholera season of 1832, while yet unfin- 
ished, the building was used as a cholera hospital. It was soon afterwards 



M APPENDIX IX. 

completed, and the offices of the Register, Comptroller, Street Commission, and 
Surrogate established in it. The Register's office occupied only the west side 
of the first story, which then amply accommodated the comparatively small 
number of records. As the work of the office increased and documents accu- 
mulated, this space became much too narrow, and in 1858 the rooms of the 
Surrogate, on the same floor, were appropriated to the use of the Register. 
The Street Department was moved in the following year, leaving the whole 
upper story for the Comptroller's office, which, in the fall of 1869, was trans- 
ferred to the new County Court-house. 

In 1869 it was determined to devote the whole building to the use of the 
Register, and on May 18th, 1869, the Supervisors passed a resolution ordering 
the issue of not over one hundred thousand dollars in bonds, to be known as 
" New York County Repair of Building Stock," and to be used for the repairs 
of this building. In 1870 a further appropriation of $40,000 was made for 
" refitting the Register's office," and bills for this amount were made out to A. 
J. Garvey for ostensibly performing the work. The iron stairway outside the 
northern end of the building, which formerly led to the Comptroller's office, 
was taken away and a wooden stairway erected inside the hall. Besides this, 
all that can be shown as the result of this expenditure are some gas-fixtures 
in the walls of the third story, a few desks, and a quantity of common wooden 
book-racks, which were placed in the second story and have never been used. 
No use whatever has ever been made by the Register of either the second or 
third story, because as it is constantly necessary to refer from one volume of 
the records to another, their dispersal over different floors would most seriously 
embarrass and delay the work of the office. 

The hall running through the middle of the first story is used for maps, 
powers of attorney, discharges of mortgages, and indexes. On the west side 
are three rooms occupied for conveyances, and on the east side four rooms 
which are used for mortgages and by the recording clerks and searchers. All 
of these rooms are lined with combustible wooden book-racks, which contain 
the titles to all the real estate on Manhattan Island. There are twelve 
hundred large volumes of conveyances and nearly as many of mortgages, and 
the discharges, powers of attorney, indexes, etc., swell the total number of 
volumes to nearly twenty-eight hundred. The earliest Dutch records are at 
Albany, in the office of the Secretary of State, but the documents here extend 
as far back as 1665. The space is so inadequate that many volumes are stowed 
away in racks under the desks of the clerks, and unless other accommodations 
are afforded it will soon be necessary to pile them in heaps on the floor. The 
number of volumes has doubled during the last fifteen years, and the present 
increase is at the rate of a hundred volumes a year. The Register's office 
contains nearly eight hundred maps of real estate in this city, which are put 
away in wooden pigeon-holes, exposed not only to dust and the danger of fire, 
but to the attacks of mice, which abound all over the building, and are 
frequently seen running about the floor. These animals, attracted by the 
paste with which the paper surface of the maps is fastened to the muslin 
backs, have already mutilated a large number, rendering some absolutely 
worthless. Many of these maps are of great value, as references are made to 
marks and numbers upon them in important conveyances and mortgages, and 
their destruction might seriously affect the title to large amounts of real estate. 



APPENDIX IX. Gt 

One map of this character, which has been in the office but two years, has been 
badly damaged in this manner. Those inmates of the Register's office who 
have been there long enough to know, assert that the ceilings have not been 
whitewashed or in any way cleaned for over fifteen years. No visitor to the 
building would be disposed to question the statement, as the ceilings in most 
of the rooms are as black as though overlaid with soot. The stools, desks, and 
other articles of furniture, originally of a cheap description, have been in use 
for a long series of years, and are so worn and battered that a second-hand 
furniture dealer would hardly purchase them. Panes of glass are broken out 
of some of the windows, and the openings stopped with books. Nearly all the 
glass has been broken in the outer entrance door, and the loss repaired with 
pieces of board. The furnaces in the basement, by which the office is heated, 
are old and worn out, in consequence of which the clerks are frequently 
nearly stifled by coal-gas. One of the hot-air openings is immediately under 
a book-rack, and the volumes of manuscript above it are sometimes so hot that 
a man can hardly bear his hand upon them. They are, of course, as dry as 
tinder and would readily take fire. Although the building is nominally fire- 
proof, the staircase leading to the second story is built of pitch pine. The 
main room on the second floor, besides useless book-niches before mentioned, 
contains a considerable quantity of boards and shavings which Mr. Garvey's 
workmen left behind them. Similar inflammable materials are scattered 
through the smaller rooms opening out of it, which are otherwise bare and 
empty. The sole contents of the new third story are more boards and 
shavings, two rusty old stoves, and some pieces of stove-pipe. The otherwise 
dirty floor is whitened in many places by the rain, as the costly new roof has 
leaked ever since its erection. 

91 



APPENDIX X. 



HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF 

DESIGN. 

BY T. ADDISON RICHARDS, 

Corresponding Secretary of the National Academy of Design, and Professor of Art in the 
University of the City of New York. 



The National Academy of Design was instituted in the year 182G. It 
superseded the American Academy of Art, then the only society of the kind 
in the country, and with the organization and management of which the artists 
were dissatisfied. 

The American Academy was a joint-stock association, composed chiefly of 
laymen, prominent citizens, connoisseurs, and patrons of art ; and, perhaps, 
necessarily so, in view of the small number and smaller influence of the body 
professional at that time. It was organized on the 3d of December, 1802, under 
the title of the New York Academy of Fine Arts, and was chartered February 
12th, 1808, under the altered style of the American Academy of Art, when the 
original number of shareholders (five hundred) was changed to one thousand, 
and the value of shares (one hundred dollars) to twenty-five dollars. The first 
president was Robert R. Livingston, though that office was afterward filled 
by the distinguished artist, Colonel John Trumbull. Among its directors 
were De Witt Clinton, David Hosack, John R. Murray, and other prominent 
citizens. The society purchased a collection of casts and opened a school for 
the study of the Antique. It also prepared exhibitions at irregular and long 
intervals, and with varying success. On the whole, it was not fortunate, and 
had a somewhat struggling existence for about twenty-five years, when it was 
at length absorbed by the new National Academy of Design. 

The general causes of the discontent of the artists with the old Academy 
were the slight consideration paid to them and their virtual exclusion from the 
management, they deeming themselves to be more competent than laymen to 
control an art association. The immediate reason for the defection of the pro- 
fessional body was the rudeness shown to them and to the art-students when 



APPENDIX X. 63 

they attempted to avail themselves of the very liberal privileges offered them 
of studying in the schools of the Academy during the pleasant hours of from six 
to eight in the morning only, and this without fire in the winter weather, and 
with doors opening sooner or later at the discretion and convenience of the jani- 
tor. Great offense chanced to be given to the young knights of the brush on a 
certain frosty morning, when they turned their indignant backs forever upon 
the grim old Alma Mater, and with Morse, afterward the illustrious inventor 
of the electric telegraph, at their head, they betook themselves to the rooms 
of the Historical Society in the old Alms-house building, City Hall Park, and 
formed a " Drawing Association " of their own. This happened on the 8th of 
November, 1825. Various yet fruitless efforts at reconciliation and reunion 
were made, when at length, on the 14th day of January, 1826, the " Drawing 
Association " resolved to set up permanently for itself, and after listening to a 
spirited address by their leader, Morse, they formed the National Academy of 
the Arts of Design, as the society was first named. The next day, January 
15th, they met, and by ballot elected fifteen from their body who were to con- 
stitute the Academy, and by the 18th the " fifteen " had, as directed by the 
society, added ten others to their number. Of these original members, as we 
write, February, 1872, the only survivors are S. F. B. Morse, A. B. Durand,and 
T. S. Cummings. 

The discussion of the points at issue between the two societies was the 
great topic of the time, and was argued at great length and considerable feeling 
in the columns of the Everting Post, the chief champions being Col. Trumbull, 
of the old Academy, and Prof. Morse, the leader of the new. These papers may 
be found in extenso in Cumminr/s's Historic Annals, published in 1865. 

The first charter of the association was obtained from the Legislature ot 
New York in 1828. 

GALLERIES AND EXHIBITIONS. 

The school department being in operation, even before the formal organiza- 
tion of the new society, steps were at once taken toward the next means pro- 
posed for the promotion of the arts — the institution of the annual exhibitions, 
which have continued without interruption and with ever-increasing success to 
the present time, consisting now as then of original works by living artists, 
and never before exhibited by the Academy. 

For the first exhibition, which took place in the spring of 1826, a small room 
was secured on the second story of a building at the south-west corner of Broad- 
way and Reade Street. The apartment was lighted in the evening by six ordi- 
nary gas-burners, and was the first instance on record of a public exhibition of 
pictures at night. The venture failed to pay expenses, and the members 
were assessed to make up the loss. 

Not discouraged with the ill-success of this first attempt, the second exhibi- 
tion was duly prepared! jn the spring of 1827/hut in new quarters, for the Acad- 
emy was then and long afterward very migratory. This time an appreciating 
public was invited to a larger and somewhat better display, spread upon the 
walls of/an apartment on the third story of the Arcade Baths, in Chambers 
Street, between Broadway and Centre Street — a building which afterward 
became successively Palmo's Opera-bouse, Burton's Theater, and the United 

States Marshal's Office/ The Academy leased these premises/for three years at 

7- x v ^ 



64 APPENDIX X. 

three hundred dollars per annum; and here were held also the third, fourth, 
and fifth exhibitions, in 1828, 1829, and 1830. The next ten exhibitions, from 
the sixth to the fifteenth inclusive (1831 to 1840), were held in very much more 
suitable rooms on the third floor of the Mercantile Library, in Clinton Hall, 
then at the corner of Nassau and Beekman Streets. These apartments were 
leased at an annual rent of five hundred dollars. 

In 1840, at the expiration of the Clinton Hall lease, the Academy again 
removed, and this time went up-town, settling for another decade on the upper 
floor of what was then the Society Library building, at the corner of Broadway 
and Leonard Street. These galleries were larger and more commodious than 
any yet occupied by the society. The annual rent was increased to one 
thousand dollars. The exhibitions from the sixteenth to the twenty-fourth 
inclusive (1841 to 1849), were held here. 

In 1850, the institution moved yet further up-town, and for the first time 
in its history, into its own house, having purchased the property formerly 
occupied by Brewer's stables in the rear of 663 Broadway, opposite Bond Street. 
Here a suite of six fine galleries was erected, having a total length of one 
hundred and sixty-four feet, and a breadth of fifty feet. The exhibitions of 
1850 to 1854, twenty-fifth to twenty-ninth inclusive, took place here. After five 
years of occupancy the Academy thought fit to sell t Lis property, for which it 
received about one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, affording a net gain 
on the investment of sixty-nine thousand dollars, and leaving, after the payment 
of all outstanding indebtedness, a balance in the treasury of nearly sixty 
thousand dollars. This accumulation of funds was the first step toward the 
erection of the palatial edifice afterward built by the Academy in Twenty- 
third Street. 

On the sale of the Broadway property, while awaiting the building of a 
new home, it became necessary to find other accommodations, and temporary 
quarters were secured in the gallery over the entrance to what was then the 
Rev. Dr. Cbapin's Church, at 548 Broadway. Here were given the thirtieth 
and thirty -first annual exhibitions in 1855 and 1856. 

For the thirty-second exhibition in 1857 the old rooms at 663 Broadway, 
remaining then unchanged, were rented by the society. In 1858, a suite of 
galleries was fitted up by the Academy on the upper floor of the building at 
the north-west corner of Tenth Street and Fourth Avenue. The thirty-third, 
thirty-fourth, thirty-fifth, and thirty-sixth exhibitions, 1858 to 1861 inclusive, 
were held at this place. The thirty-seventh, thirty-eigthth, and thirty-ninth 
exhibitions, 1862 to 1864 inclusive, took place in the galleries of the building 
625 Broadway, then known as the Institute of Art or the Derby Gallery. 

In the spring of 1865, the Academy' took possession of a new edifice in Twenty- 
third Street, corner of Fourth Avenue, where all the subsequent exhibitions, 
the thirty-ninth to the forty-sixth, 1865 to 1871 inclusive, have been held, 
with the addition of the series of Winter Exhibitions, commencing in 1867, 
and of the Summer Exhibitions, established in 1870. The annual collections of 
the American Society of Painters in Water Colors have been included in the 
Winter Exhibitions of the Academy. 

The site of the present beautiful edifice of the Academy was purchased in 
the autumn of 1860, from Mr. William Niblo, at a cost, of fifty thousand dollars. 
Plans by Mr. P. B. Wight were submitted in January, 1861. Ground was first 



APPENDIX X. 6C 

broken on the 18th of April, 1863, and on the 21st day of October, in the same 
year, the corner-stone was laid with appropriate and imposing ceremonies. 

The entire cost of the property, including the land, has been about two 
hundred and thirty-seven thousand dollars. The building has a frontage of 
80 feet on the north side of Twenty-third Street, and extends 98 feet 9 inches 
on the west side of Fourth Avenue. It is three stories high, beside the cellar. 
The lower or street floor is occupied by the janitor's rooms, and the school 
apartment. The central story, which is reached by a double flight of elegant 
marble steps, entering a hall eighteen feet in width, is occupied by the Parlors, 
the Library, Council, and Lecture rooms, and other apartments. The upper 
floor is devoted entirely to the Exhibition rooms. In the center is a hall or 
corridor 34 by 40 feet, divided by a double arcade supported on columns of 
polished marble. The galleries, five in number and of varying dimensions, are 
all entered from this central vestibule, and all communicate with each other. 
The building is constructed of white and gray marble, tastefully contrasted, 
and richly sculptured. The architecture is that revived Gothic, now the dominant 
style in England, which combines the features of the different schools of the 
middle ages. It is familiarly spoken of as the Venetian Gothic ; but the archi- 
tect says of it, if a name for the style be demanded, it can only be said that the 
name of no past style of architecture is altogether appropriate to it. As the 
revived Gothic goes on toward more perfect success, it will find a name for 
itself 

ORGANIZATION AND CHARACTER. 

The Academy is a private association devoted to the public service. It is, 
as it ever has been, owned and controlled only by artists, no others being 
eligible, under the constitution, to membership, except in the complimentary 
grades of Honorary Members or Fellows. Its means are devoted entirely to 
the cultivation of the Arts of Design in all such ways as may be deemed 
available. Like similar institutions, in other countries, its chief methods of 
labor have thus far consisted of permanent organization of the professional 
body for the union of its experience, power, and influence, both within itself 
and upon the community at large ; in the foundation of schools for technical 
instruction in the various branches of Art study ; in the establishment of Exhi- 
bitions of Works of Art for the cultivation both of professional knowledge and 
the public taste ; and of lectures upon Anatomy, Perspective, and other Art 
subjects. 

MEMBERSHIP. 

Membership in the Academy is both professional and lay, the former con- 
sisting of the Academicians, Associates, and Honorary Members, and the lat- 
ter of Honorary Members and Fellows. 

Associates. — The Associates are chosen on their merits by ballot at the 
annual meetings of the Academicians. They must be professional artists and 
exhibitors at the time of their election. 

Academicians. — Academicians are chosen from the body of Associates and 
from professional Honorary Members. They are the body corporate, and, in 
their election, distinguished professional ability and personal character are 
the only claims entertained. 

Fellows. — Connoisseurs, amateurs, and all lovers of Art may become Fel- 



66 APPENDIX X. 

lows of the Academy on the payment of a subscription of one hundred do^ars. 
Subscriptions of five hundred dollars constitute a Fellowship in Perpetuity, 
with power to transfer all the privileges of the grade, or to bequeath them for- 
ever. It is through the liberal subscriptions of the Fellowship Fund that a 
large portion of the means to erect the present edifice of the Academy has 
been obtained. 

Honorary Members. — Honorary Membership is conferrred at the same 
time and in the same manner as in the election of Academicians and Associates 
upon distinguished artists and lovers of Art at home and abroad. No elections 
have been made into this body since the foundation of the grade of Fellows. 

SCHOOLS. 

The educational department of the Academy commenced with its earliest 
history, and has always been regarded as one of its most important fields of 
labor. Through nearly half a century, free schools have with rare interrup- 
tions been maintained. They embrace at present departments for the study 
of the Antique Sculpture, of the Living Model, of Pictorial Anatomy, and of 
Perspective, to which will be added, as may be required, classes in Modeling 
and in Painting. The schools being intended only for advanced students, all 
ax>plicants for admission must be able to submit to the Council a shaded crayon 
drawing made from a cast of some portion of the human figure. The schools 
have been attended by hundreds of students, and they number among their 
graduates many of the most successful artists of the land. The late James A. 
Suydam, N. A., at his death, in 1865, bequeathed the munificent sum of fifty 
thousand dollars toward the maintenance of the Academy schools. Other 
and still larger endowments for this important work, are, however, greatly 
needed. 

In these few pages we have been able to take only a cursory glance at the 
history of the Academy. The story of its struggles and fortunes, with sketches 
biographical and anecdotal of the many distinguished artists who are or have 
been among its members, might form the theme of a most interesting volume. 



APPENDIX XI. 



POLITICAL CORRUPTION IN NEW YORK. 



SPEECH OF HON. R. B. ROOSEVELT 

Delivered at the Grand Mass Meeting in Cooper Union, on Monday Evening, 
September 4th, 1871. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : I do not know whether it is exactly possible 
for a man to be born a Democrat, but I claim to come as near it as any one can. 
The earliest recollection that I have of public questions, when my arms had 
attained little more than seven years' pith, was my upholding stanchly and 
unswervingly the great doctrines of Democracy. Since that time I have been 
a Democrat — for Democracy is like vaccination: when it once takeswell.it 
lasts a lifetime. But as I did not believe disloyalty to mean Democracy during 
the war, I do not believe dishonesty to mean Democracy now. The very cor- 
ner-stone of our faith is pure, economical administration of government, and 
without that no code of princijdes can receive the hearty support of our party. 
Our party is a party of the people, and the people are always on the side of 
what is right and true. There may be, and there doubtless are, among both 
parties good, honorable men. Looking around me, I cannot doubt that both 
sides can lay equal credit in this particular. Rut those who love Democracy, 
those who have put their abiding faith in it and built up the hopes of the glory 
of their country on it, naturally look upon it as the representation of whatever 
is "noblest and best. 

To us Democrats, therefore, comes the charge of corruption against our 
rulers with a two-fold force, an especial horror. To hear that the chief officers 
of a Democratic city, who have been elected by an overwhelming majority of 
Democratic votes, some of whom have been chosen over and over again to vari- 
ous positions of trust, are venal and corrupt, is indeed almost incredible. And 
yet, what is the evidence? The charges are direct, plain, and explicit ; misap- 
propriations of vast sums are alleged ; time, place, and circumstance are all 
stated through the daily press with the utmost exactness. Pretended pur- 



68 



APPENDIX XT 



chases, which are in their very nature impossible, are proved to have been 
paid for. The building and furnishing of our New Court-house are made the 
pretext for the payment of bills which are not merely monstrous — they are 
manifestly fabulous. It is pretended that acres of plastering have been done, 
and miles of carpeting furnished. The entire City Hall Park could have been 
plastered and carpeted at less expense ; and no sane man can put faith in the 
pretense, if it were made, that the work charged for was really done. How- 
ever, I must do our rulers the credit of saying that they make no such pre- 
tense. They have never denied the payments, they have not even asserted that 
the money was earned, while they have, in every one of their lame defenses, 
impliedly admitted that the bills were extravagant, if not fraudulent. They 
have presumed to defy the public ; they have tried to lay half the blame on the 
shoulders of Republicans, as if a burglar were to excuse himself by asserting 
that he was assisted by a fellow-burglar ; and they have stated that the charges 
were brought by political enemies, and so not entitled to answer; but nowhere 
has there been a straightforward, positive refutation — nowhere a denial even 
of any sort. 

That they are guilty no man who has read the statements doubts for a mo- 
ment, and no one believes that any such sums were actually expended on the 
Court-house. Nevertheless, I have been informed that this building, instead 
of costing $3,000,000 or $5,000,000, as alleged, the latter being supposed to be 
the extreme limit, has actually cost over $12,000,000. To prove this I have 
been shown the figures purporting to have been taken from the Comptroller's 
books; but I hope I was deceived, and that they were exaggerations. But of 
the facts distinctly alleged in the public press there can be no question ; it is 
admitted by default that millions on millions of the public money have been 
paid to a few obscure individuals, for which they never did nor could have per- 
formed equivalent labor; while a little printing company of $25,000 capital has 
received $1,500,000 from the county alone in two years. 

Nevertheless, shocking as are these accusations, they are but trifling in 
comparison with the real crimes of the accused. Money is, after all, a trivial 
affair; we are a wealthy nation, growing with immense rapidity, rolling up 
capital and adding to our resources daily; we can endure limitless peculations 
in our officials, and still survive ; but they have stolen from us something 
dearer and more sacred than our wealth — they have stolen our rights, our lib- 
erties, our very national institutions. Such wrongs as I have enumerated 
would never have been submitted to by the Democratic party had the individ- 
uals composing that party not first been deprived of the free expression of their 
will. These, our masters, have stolen our ballots, have falsifiel the will of the 
people, and pulled away the very key-stone of the arch of liberty. 

What I am about to tell you I hardly expect you to believe; yet I will give 
you every point of time and circumstance. I will furnish you with every detail 
and all the minutiae of the mode of operations; and, large as is this meeting, 
were I to call my witnesses together, I could fill this building as full as it is now. 
I know whereof I speak ; and in exposing these shameless iniquities rather in 
defense of Democracy than in arraignment of it, I really extenuate and set down 
naught in malice. By a combination of certain Democratic and Republican 
office-holders in this city the votes of the people no longer express their will. 
They are falsified in three different ways, so that no matter how honest the 



APPENDIX XI. 69 

mass of voters might be, the corrupt Ring would apparently be retained in 
power. To effect this, three forces are brought into play. There is the use of 
repeaters at the polls, the manipulation of ballots as they are deposited, and 
the false counting of them in making up the canvass. Precisely how these 
schemes are managed I will explain to you. 

Heretofore there has been a registry of all legal voters in this city. I can 
only speak of the past. I cannot tell what Tammany will do hereafter ; and 
now that the registry law has been repealed we may be sure that matters will 
not be improved. There were three registers to supervise these lists, three 
inspectors to receive the votes, and three canvassers to count them. One of 
each of these boards was a Republican, and could stop all frauds if he pleased, 
but as the parties to be defeated were only those Democrats who were opposed 
to Tammany, he shut his eyes with resolute determination. To begin with, 
gangs of repeaters were organized, whose first duty was to have their names 
recorded in as many districts as possible, usually from a dozen to fifty ; and it 
was curious with what childlike innocence the Republican register would 
receive the names of one hundred men who assumed to reside at the private 
dwelling of some leading Tammany ward politician, or who pretended to camp 
out on some vacant lot. So the repeaters were enrolled ; and I have had lists 
of them offered to me for sale at so much a vote when Tammany did not need 
them. 

On election day these men went to the polls in gangs with their captains, 
and marched from district to district like companies of soldiers. If one of them 
was challenged, the result depended upon the locality ; in a disreputable 
neighborhood, the challenger was knocked into the gutter and probably locked 
up by the police for disturbing the polls. In a district where this would not 
answer, the accused was taken before a police magistrate, who sat all day to 
hear just such cases, and who let him out on bail, the necessary bail being also 
on hand for the purpose, and the repeater was usually back at the polls and 
hard at work before the challenger, and no one ever heard of such a case beino- 
brought to trial afterward. 

In another way were these repeaters used. Many people, especially wealthy 
Republicans, do not vote. It is the duty of every man to vote ; this is one of 
the obligations he assumes in demanding liberty ; and rather than have the 
duty neglected, Tammany sees that it is performed. Toward the latter part of 
the day it will be found that certain persons who are registered have not 
voted, and it then belongs to the polling officers to copy such names on slips 
and pass them to the proper parties outside ; and it would horrify, if not amuse, 
some of our wealthy millionaires to see what ragged-clothed, bloated-faced and 
disreputable individuals represented them at the polls and performed for them 
a public duty which they had neglected. This is repeating. I have given you 
but a hurried sketch of it ; the votes polled by it count up tens of thousands. 
But, successful as it was, it had its defects. The repeaters began to imagine 
they were their own masters; they thought they held the power, because they 
were the instruments of power. To use a political term, they undertook to 
set up shop for themselves. Still repeating, when kept in its place, is not 
disapproved by our Ring rulers. 

The manipulation of the ballots — "Ringing" the ballots, as it is appropriately 
called — is a verv beautiful operation, and it is said by those who have tried it 
92 



TO A P P E N D I X X I . 

to be perfect. It is now the favorite plan ; it is simple, inexpensive, and effec- 
tive. When one of your good, innocent Republicans, we will suppose, is 
going to the polls to vote the wrong ticket or support the wrong man, as you 
are so fond of doing, your unwise intentions are quietly frustrated. The 
inspector holds in his hand the ballot you ought to deposit, and when he 
receives yours quietly substitutes one for the other and drops yours on the 
floor before he puts his in the box. This is a simple sleight-of-hand trick, 
easily learned and readily applied. If, however, you are suspicious, and watch 
the official, or if the latter is awkward and inexperienced, a man nearby 
pushes against you, or the policeman seizes you and accuses you of having 
voted before. Of course ample apologies are immediately tendered for the 
rudeness, the inspectors are indignant that so respectable a gentleman should 
be insulted, they abuse the rough or the policeman, and you are shown out with 
great respect ; but your ballot is thrown down on the floor, and the substitute 
got into the box. Repeating is expensive, false counting is troublesome, our 
Tammany men are not experts at arithmetic, and figures are often trouble- 
some, as our amiable Comptroller will admit at this moment; but " Ringing" 
ballots is a complete success. It is only necessary to buy a Republican inspec- 
tor, and a small place or a few hundred dollars will usually do that. 

The third plan is false counting. This is done generally by transferring 
the figures boldly. For instance, if Jones, the Tammany candidate, gets one 
hundred votes, and Smith, the opposition candidate, receives two hundred, 
the two hundred of Smith are transferred to Jones, who gives his one hundred 
to Smith. This is an exquisitely simple process, but in practice it is said to 
work badly, and great complaint is made of it by those who have tried it. In 
the first place, the candidates are often too nearly equal to give Tammany its 
just preponderance, or to overcome some persistent opposition in a district 
where this plan cannot be worked, for it is found utterly impracticable in some 
districts. Its defects can sometimes be cured by a false count. That is to say, 
the votes are counted by tens, one canvasser taking them up and counting ten, 
when he calls " tally," and slips a piece of elastic around the bundle. Of 
course he has only to take five votes instead of ten, and call " tally," to aug- 
ment greatly the chance of his favorite. In one instance this was done so 
enthusiastically that the Tammany candidate had received fifty " tallies," or 
five hundred votes, and had a large quantity yet uncounted, when the poll- 
clerk felt it advisable to inform the canvassers that there were only four hun- 
dred and fifty names on the registry. 

Between these three schemes the voice of the people of New York has been 
utterly stifled up until last fall, when, by the cruel and tyrannical interference 
of the. United States Government, under the vile bayonet election law, we got 
a fair vote. The wrong was not so much done to Republicans, for the inspect- 
ors saw that comparative justice was secured to their party on general issues ; 
but it was alowed full scope against opposition Democrats — Democrats who 
believed in a pure government, and were opposed to Tammany Hall. Thus it 
is that Democrats have to bear the entire odium of the misrule of our city, 
while we Democrats still believe our party to be the honest one. 

This odium we cannot endure. I speak as a Democrat to Democrats. If we 
would see a chance of carrying the next Presidential election, of taking the 
nation from the hands of those who, in our opinion, are unfit to have control 



APPENDIX XL 71 

of it, of restoring to general acceptation the principles we have at heart, we 
must vindicate our party ; Ave must remove the load of disgrace brought on ug 
by official corruption in this city. Here we are in control. We have undis- 
turbed possession of all branches of the municipal government, and an immense 
majority of voters. For all frauds, peculation, venality, and iniquity in the 
municipal government we are responsible, and no party with such a record will 
ever be given the possession of the National Administration. We must crush 
Tammany, or Tammany's dishonesty will crush us. Large portions of the 
money stolen from our treasury were used to bribe Republicans; notoriously, 
the very charter under which w r e live was carried by the purchase of a Repub- 
lican. Municipal officers and the spoil of our citizens have been divided 
between both parties. But none of this excuses us. We are in power ; we can 
correct the abuses; if we do not, we ought to suffer, and we will. If Republi- 
cans are not blameless, we are mainly guilty. 

Already we are threatened with the loss of the Germans. That economical 
people will not submit to have their houses mortgaged by the issue of munici- 
pal bonds in order to give to corrupt men wealth and luxury. From all sec- 
tions of the country come complaints from Democrats that they have to defend 
the iniquities of Tammany Hall, and that they are beaten by the bad record of 
our city rulers. If Democracy would survive, it must put down with a strong 
hand these abuses. We can still do so. The people are not so entirely help- 
less as our masters would have us believe. The latter cannot defy an outraged 
and indignant community with the impunity they hope. The power is still 
with us if we are willing and determined to exert it. In times of great excite- 
ment the usual barriers are swept away, and the people rush along in a mighty 
current which carries all before it. Those who would resist it are overwhelmed 
and perish, but the corrupt always cower before it and are most earnest to con- 
ciliate it. So it will be here. Canvassers, inspectors, and registers, be they 
Democrats or Republicans, are as fond of their lives as though they were hon- 
est men ; and no one appreciates the danger of irritating the people more than 
they. An aroused and outraged public is not patient, and Judge Ledwith laid 
down good law when he told his friends that if they saw an inspector tamper 
with their ballots they could shoot him on the spot. The man who cheats a 
nation out of its birthright has committed the highest of crimes, and deserves 
no mercy. We are living under a wrong system. To allow a mayor elected for 
two years to appoint all other municipal officials for five years may be Tammany 
Democracy, but it is not ours. That system must be changed ; a proper mode 
of selecting polling officers must be established ; every protection must be 
given to the ballot ; and, incidentally to these reforms, the Ring which secured 
control of Tammany Hall must be put down ; and then, not only will our city's 
fame be redeemed, our taxes lightened, our business affairs improved, our com- 
merce increased, and our metropolis made what it should be, the grandest city 
in the world, but Democracy and Republican institutions will be relieved from 
the discredit which has been brought upon them. 



T2 APPENDIXXT. 

LIST OF PRESENTS 

RECEIVED BY MR. TWEED'S DAUGHTER ON THE OCCASION OP HER WEDDING. 

Cornelius Corson, coral set $1,000 

Cornelius Corson, watch in finger-ring 1,000 

Charles E. Loew, pearl set 700 

Mrs. E. A. Garrett, diamond locket, gold chain 5,000 

Peter B. Sweeny, diamond and enamel bi acelet 1,000 

James M. Sweeny, diamond bracelets 1,000 

Harry Genet, diamond cross 2,000 

Edward Boyle, gold, diamond, and pearl cross 1,000 

James Ryan, sable chain necklace, gold and diamonds 1,500 

Superintendent Kelso, ice-bowl 500 

Henry Smitb, filagree armlets 700 

Mrs. R. B. Connolly, gold and silver ice-dish 500 

Mrs. E. A. Woodward, silver punch-bowl 500 

Mrs. Geo. J. Miller, silver cake-baskets 500 

M. J. Sbandley, paintings and wax flowers 1,000 

Charles H. Hall, pitcher and goblet 500 

Mrs. Edward Hogan, silver ice-cream dish 500 

Mrs. Augustus L. Brown, fruit-dish, bowl, and pitcher 250 

Charles G. Cornell, silver pitcher and goblet 250 

Sheriff Brennan, silver dish and spoons 500 

Mrs. Joseph B. Young, two silver castors 250 

Dr. Carnochan, silver-ware 500 

Nicol & Davidson, bronze statue of Juno 500 

Thomas J. Creamer, gold and silver ware 1,000 

J. H. Tooker, silver-ware' 500 

James Fisk, Jr., silver ice- bowl 500 

Mrs. L. Ingersoll, bouquet-holder 5C0 

John Garvey, silver gong 500 

Senator Norton, gold chain and diamond pendant 1,500 

Mrs. John J. Blair, cameo, diamond, and pearl set 2,500 

Frank Voorhies, turquois and pearl set 500 

Joseph G. Harrison, cameo sleeve-buttons, with diamonds 1,000 

John McB. Davidson, neck-chain, gold, pearls, diamonds, and enamel.. . . 1,500 

John H. Keyser, necklace and diamond cross 1,000 

James H. Ingersoll, diamond wheat-spray for the hair 2,000 

John Cox (Judge), chain and diamond locket 2,500 

Hugh Smith, emerald and diamond locket 5,000 

Joseph S. Bosworth, Jr., diamond and pearl ring 1,500 

John H. Williams, full silver service 1,000 

Thomas C. Fields, gold and diamond necklace and ear-rings 5,000 

W. E. King, emerald, diamond, and gold bracelets 5,000 

George G. Barnard, gold, diamond, and pearl necklace 1,000 

Edward Kearney, amethyst and diamond set 1,000 

A sincere friend of W. M. Tweed, diamond set, in gold and glass box. . 5,000 



APPENDIX XI. 73 

Thurlow Weed, sugar-bowl $500 

Andrew J. Garvey, silver set 500 

Eugene Durnin, silver set 500 

J. S. Bosworth, silver-ware 250 

Jay Gould, silver-ware 250 

W. W. Watson, silver set 500 

H. J. Hastings, silver punch-bowl 250 

E. D. Bassford, silver ice-pitcher 100 

Walter Roche, silver-ware 250 

Dr. Schirmer, silver- ware 250 

E. J. Shandley, card-basket 400 

John J. Deane, card-basket 250 

Isaac Bell, clock and chandeliers 1,000 

Thomas W. Hall, vases 500 

Lord & Taylor, bridal parasol 1,000 

J McGinnis, clock and candlestick 500 

James J. Gumbleton, fan 250 

Ely Ingersoll, French clock 500 



APPENDIX XII. 



ACT OF INCORPORATION OF THE TAMMANY 

SOCIETY. 



An Act to Incorporate the Society of Tammany or Columbian Order in the 
City of New York. Passed April 9th, 1805. 

Whereas, William Mooney and other inhabitants of the City of New York 
have presented a petition to the Legislature setting forth that they, since the 
year 1789, have associated themselves under the name and description of the 
Society of Tammany or Columbian Order, for the purpose of affording relief to 
the indigent and distressed members of the said Association, their widows and 
orphans, and others who may be found proper objects of their charity ; they 
therefore solicit that the Legislature will be pleased by law to incorporate the 
said Society for the purposes aforesaid, under such limitations and restrictions 
as to the Legislature shall seem meet. 

Therefore, be it enacted by the people of the State of New York, repre- 
sented in Senate and Assembly, that such persons as now are or shall from 
time to time become members of the said Society shall be and are hereby 
ordained, constituted, and declared to be a body corporate and politic in deed, 
fact, and name, by the name of " The Society of Tammany or Columbian Order 
in the City of New York ;" and that by that name they and their successors 
shall have succession, and shall be persons in law, capable of suing and being 
sued, pleading and being impleaded, answering and being answered unto, 
defending and being defended in all courts and places whatsoever, in all man- 
ner of actions, suits, complaints, matters, and causes whatsoever; and that 
they and their successors may have a common seal, and change and alter the 
same at their pleasure ; and that they and their successors shall be persons 
capable in law to purchase, take, receive, hold, and enjoy to them and their 
successors any real estate in fee simple or for term of life or lives or otherwise, 
and any goods, chattels, or personal estate, for the purpose of enabling them 
the better to carry into effect tae benevolent purposes of affording relief to the 



APPENDIX XII. 75 

indigent and distressed, provided that the clear yearly value of such real and 
personal estates shall not exceed the sum of five thousand dollars ; and that 
they and their successors shall have full power and authority to give, grant, 
sell, lease, devise, or dispose of the said real and personal estates, or any part 
thereof, at their will and pleasure ; and that they and their successors shall 
have power from time to time to make, constitute, ordain, and establish by-laws, 
constitutions, ordinances, and regulations as they shall judge proper, the elec- 
tion of their officers, for the election or admission of new members of the said 
corporation, and the terms and manner of admission, for the better govern- 
ment and regulation of their officers and members, for fixing the times and 
places of meeting of the said corporation, and for regulating all the affairs and 
business of the said corporation ; provided, that such by-laws and regulations 
shall not be repugnant to the Constitution or laws of the United States or of 
this State ; and for the better carrying on the business and affairs of the said 
corporation there shall be such numbers of officers of the said corporation and 
of such denomination or denominations to be chosen in such manner and at 
such times and places as are now or shall from time to time be directed by 
the constitution and by-laws of the said corporation, made or to be made for 
that purpose ; and that such number and description of members shall be suf- 
ficient to constitute a legal meeting of the said corporation as are now or may 
hereafter be directed by the said constitution and by-laws of the said corpora- 
tion. 

And be it further enacted, that this act be and hereby is declared to be a 
public act, and that the same be construed in all courts and places benignly 
and favorably for every beneficial purpose therein intended. 



State op New York, Secretary's Office. 
I have compared the preceding with the original on file in this office, and 
do hereby certify that the same is a correct transcript therefrom, and of the 
whole of said original law. 

Given under my hand and seal of office at the City of Albany, 
this 2-lth day of January, in the year 1859. 

[seal.] S. W. MORTON , JDep. of Secretary of State. 



APPENDIX XIII. 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF HENRY INMAN, 
THE ARTIST. 

FROM THE PRIVATE MANUSCRIPT DIARY OF THE LATE 
MRS. COL. WILLIAM L. STONE. 



New York, August 12t7i, 1838. 

" I called this morning on my husband's friend, Henry Inman, to sit for 
my portrait. When I went in I found Vanderlyn, the favorite pupil of Gilbert 
Stuart, with him. He, however, soon went away and left us together. Inman 
looked haggard and worn.* He seemed glad to see me, and gave me more of 
his confidence than usual. To-day he related to me the particulars of his early 
life-struggles. I listened attentively while he unfolded before me pages in the 
history of his inner life. He has a beautiful mind, the most exquisite percep- 
tion of moral, intellectual, and natural beauty, and a keen relish of the harmo- 
nies. He possesses the choicest social qualities and the finest sensibilities. 
Indeed, his feelings are so delicate, that it requires a very refined nature to 
understand him. As a natural consequence, he is quite often misunderstood 
by coarser minds. 

" In speaking of his early life, Mr. Inman said : ' From my boyhood my 
greatest recreation was a pencil and piece of paper. My father was possessed 
of a harsh, uncompromising temper, and thought every one must be brought 
up alike. He had made up his mind to dispose of me very differently from 
what my taste suggested. But my mother was gentle and persuasive ; she 
spoke in my behalf, and argued that my success would be far greater in a 
branch of business that suited my talents. Shortly after this, my father met 
John Wesley Jarvis, the painter, who was then in the zenith of popular favor. 
He spoke of me to him, and procured an interview. Jarvis at once proposed 
to take me (then only fifteen) as a pupil. Soon afterward, I went with him to 

* This was just after Inman had lost nearly all of the means he had acquired by his art, 
through unfortunate speculations in 1836. 



APPENDI XXIII. 

Albany, where we put up at Crittenden's, the most expensive hotel in the 
place. He represented me as a wonderful boy, and kept me living at great 
expense, thereby creating a taste for a style of life far above my means to sup- 
port. Here he left me for several weeks, while he went to a distant city to 
fulfill an engagement. When he returned, I told him 1 was in difficulty ; that 
I had incurred heavy expenses in his absence, and had no means to pay my 
bills ; and that I had written to my father for advice, but had received for an 
answer that he had no money to give me, and I must take care of myself. 
• 'Then," said Jarvis, " you must paint. You can paint now better than any one 
in this 'country except me ; and you can paint cabinet-pictures, in a style in 
which I will instruct you, that will consume but little time. You can turn 
them off very fast, and charge low, say five or six dollars ; you can paint half 
a dozen in a week. I will speak to all the great people here, and tell them 
what a wonderful lad you are ; you will soon have plenty of work. You can 
stav here this winter and pursue this course, while I go to New Orleans. I will 
pay what I can of Crittenden's bill already run up, and in the spring, upon my 
return, we will begin again in New York." Jarvis was as good as his word, and 
during that winter I painted every member of the Legislature, which brought 
me in a considerable sum. Jarvis, though very dissipated, and careless in money 
matters, was always very kind-hearted and liberal, and willing to share all he 
had with me. My disposition was timid, and I never received any encourage- 
ment from my father ; but Jarvis wound himself round my heart by his kindly 
sympathy. He always tried to make me believe I was equal to anything I had 
a mind to undertake! The best society and the finest abilities in the State con- 
gregated at Crittenden's ; and my stay had its advantages in that respect.' 

"I recollect well a morning passed in Inman's studio last spring. We had 
considerable talk of pictures, and of one in particular that happened to be at 
the time on his easel— a picture of a little boy of two years of age. On my 
expressing my surprise at his having attained a perfect likeness of a sitter who 
was not one moment quiet, he replied that it was difficult ; it made him a little 
nervous, but that he painted parts— the form of the head and features— while 
the child sat asleep in the nurse's lap ; for the rest, he gave him some toy, and, 
when he was full of delight, caught the expression. 

" I remarked, it had often surprised me to see pictures where the form and 
features were correct, and yet entirely spoiled by the expression— either the 
absence of expression, or a smile about the mouth, in which the other features 
did not participate. The expression lacked harmony— the indescribable play 
of the features was wanting. 

" ' Ah, yes,' cried he, 'there you have it ; I always consider, when I fail to 
convey in a picture the play of the features free from constraint, that I have 
failed altogether— it is all labor lost.' 

" I remember Inman's showing me a portrait of Miss T , the general's 

dauo-hter. He had taken great pains with the composition of it. A friend, who 
was & with me, found fault with it. and told him the attitude was not natural. 
He was a little nettled by the criticism. My friend doubtless was wrong, as 
that is a part of the picture which had been greatly admired by artists. Miss 
T was celebrated for her beauty", and, when abroad, appeared at the differ- 
ent courts of England, France, Austria, Russia, Italy, etc., where she was styled 
■ The beautiful American.' She has the most perfect self-possession I ever saw 
93 



78 APPENDIX XIII. 

in one of her age, for she is now only eighteen. After her return, several artists 
were engaged to paint her, but the pictures were declared by her father and 
admirers failures. I asked Inman what he thought of her face — if people did 
not err in styling it symmetrica], — and if he were not surprised to observe one 
of her age so entirely placid and unmoved under all circumstances. He said 
he was — that her features, considered separately, were far from handsome ; but, 
as a whole, they produced a very agreeable impression. 'But, in illustration 
of your last remark,' he continued, ' I will tell you what happened when her 
father brought her to see me, and engaged my services. He began by telling 
me how sadly he had been disappointed in all the likenesses taken of his daugh- 
ter; how much trouble she had given herself to sit for his gratification, and 
with how little success ; that persons who had much reputation, and succeeded 
with others, failed here, etc. To relieve us from a conversation which was 

rather embarrassing, I turned to Miss T , and in 'a playful manner said, 

" Let me look at your face, Miss T , and see if I can discover what it is 

which makes your face so difficult to paint." Instead of bursting into a laugh, 
as most girls would, or blushing a little, and thus imparting a higher interest 
to the expression of her features, she turned her face toward me without the 
least change of expression, and with the utmost coolness, as if the face had 
belonged to a third party. " Alas," thought I, " it is sad to think your friends 
should have taken so much pains to repress in you the natural expression of 
those emotions which are so beautiful and so natural to youth, and which 
impart to them an interest which no accomplishment can give!"' 

" I remember, also, seeing on one of his easels a very sweet picture of a 
young girl, in a straw gypsy trimmed with a simple blue ribbon. On inquring 
who was the original, he showed me an extremely awkward likeness by a rude 
hand, from which he assured me he had composed this. He stated that the 
young lady was dead, and this sketch, by an unfledged artist, was all the 
parents possessed of their child. The family assured him that his likeness 
was a perfect representation of the original. What a beautiful and wonderful 
art ! It seems as if it might belong to angels both in its earthly and spiritual 
attributes ! 

" The rapidity with which Inman paints is marvelous. A few months since 
my husband (by preconcerted arrangement) came into his studio accompanied 
by his father, an aged Revolutionary veteran. My husband had long been desir- 
ous of having his father sit for his portrait, but the latter had always resolutely 
refused ; and he now came into Inman's room ignorant that it was an artist's 
studio. Inman placed the old veteran in his sitter's chair, took a seat at a desk, 
and began to converse with him about his exploits in the Revolutionary War, 
and of General Washington, and the great men who figured in that struggle for 
liberty, and soon the old gentleman was quite absorbed in his narrations. 
After half an hour had been thus employed, the son walked up to Inman's 
desk, and, looking over his shoulder, involuntarily exclaimed, ' Why, it is 
perfect.' 

" The old gentleman started to his feet. ' Surely,' cried he, ' you have not 
stolen my likeness?' It was even so; and never was there a more perfect 
portrait. 

" Inman tells me that when he has made himself comfortable in circum- 
stances by portrait-painting, he intends to go abroad, and paint several pieces 



APPENDIX XIII. 70 

which lie enshrined in his thoughts, and only require time and opportunity to 
embody and render tangible. He is exceedingly fond of his children, especially 
his eldest daughter, Mary. She is not over fifteen, but has the development 
of one of eighteen or twenty ; and lie says her mind is remarkably mature. lie 
tells me he does not, mean to yield to his desire to visit Europe till she has fin- 
finished her school-days, and can go with him and share his enjoyment* He 
has met with many disappointments, but he never croaks nor complains of 
the world's churlishness. In person he is somewhat short and thick-set. He 
has a rather large head, which seems bigger on account of an abundance of 
light-brown hair which grows low down on his forehead, and injures some- 
what the appearance of his head. His eyes are light blue, and his nose 
■rather (as he playfully expresses it) of the 'snub order belonging to a par- 
ticular order of classical noses.' The expression of his face is not particu- 
larly striking, but exceedingly amiable, and about the mouth and chin there 
is much sweetness. The latter contains a dimple. He has a large share of 
that simplicity and enthusiasm in his pursuits which are the concomitants 
of true genius. He possesses, also, an exquisite imagination. A constant 
succession of beautiful images seems to pass before him when he is in health 
or spirits. But the imagination takes its tone from the state of the health 
which affects the mind ; and they who in health revel amid a world of ideal 
splendor, pay a heavy tax when sickness, sorrow, and suffering clothe every 
object which imagination presents in the most revolting or gloomy drapery. 

" He once told me an anecdote that I wish that I could recollect in all its 
particulars. He had painted some pictures which had given great satisfaction 
■ — a thing he appreciated far higher than money ; but being unexpectedly 
dunned, and failing in other quarters, he was obliged to resort to the collection 
of his dues from this source with great reluctance. He wrote a note expressive 
of these feelings, which he repeated, and which I understood perfectly, but the 
person to whom it was addressed, not being cast in a delicate mold like him- 
self, took it as a reflection on his want of promptness in making payment, 
and treated it accordingly. He said it cost him a degree of chagrin that was 

almost insupportable. 

********** 

" Saratoga Springs, January 22d, 184G. 

" I have just seen in the Commercial the death of Henry Inman, the artist. 

The shock was very great, not having heard of his illness. He died on the 

17th inst., of disease of the heart, aged 45. He suffered greatly, I remember, 

from physical derangement while I was sitting, so that he was often very fever- 

* Inman's intention in this respect was carried out during the latter portion of his life. 
In 1844, accompanied by his daughter, he went to England, having been sent on a special 
mission to Rydal by Professor Henry Reed, of Philadelphia, to procure the likeness of Words- 
worth. Mr. James T. Fields, in his charmingly told Yesterdays with Authors, gives an 
account of a visit he made to Wordsworth, and the interview between himself and the poet 
and his wife. During this visit he saw a duplicate of the picture painted by Inman hanging 
in the poet's library. " The painter's daughter, who accompanied her father," writes Mr. 
Field, ••made a marked impression on Wordsworth, and both he and his wife joined in the 
question ' Are all the girls in America as pretty as she ?' I thought it an honor," continued 
Mr. Field, "that Mary Inman might well be proud to be so complimented by the old bard." 

During his stay in England, Inman pain ted, also, very remarkable likenesses of several 
distinguished persons, among whom was Dr. Chalmers.— A uthor. 



80 APPENDIX XIIT. 

ish, and I used to be on the qui vive lest I should do or say anything to increase 
his irritability. Persons of less vital energy would have taken to the bed under 
circumstances when he worked laboriously. When the rage for speculation 
came on, he was drawn into the vortex, and alas 1 p»or fellow, he is only one 
among many, whose peace of mind was destroyed, and whose sleepless solici- 
tude produced diseases from which death could alone release them. How many 
creations of beauty are entombed with him ! 

" A sentiment which he once quoted to me, as expressive of his feelings, 
now comes back to me with great force. ' For myself,' he said, ' much rather 
would I sleep where the moonbeams would convert into diamonds the dew- 
drops gathering on the rosebuds, than to lie beneath the dome of St. Peter's — 
rather rest where the soft south-wind would wake the fragrance of blossoms 
which affectionate hands had planted, than to molder in the chambers of the 
eternal pyramids.' " * 

* At the time of his death Inman was Vice-President of the National Academy of Design. 
Immediately upon his decease, of a complaint aggravated, if indeed not brought on, as hinted 
in Mrs. Stone's Diary, by anxiety of mind, a public exhibition was given in New York of such 
of his paintings as could readily be collected, for the benefit of his widow and children. The 
extent of his works may in some measure bo judged of from the fact that this particular col- 
lection contained one hundred and twenty-seven paintings of various kinds.— Author. 



APPENDIX XIV. 



MESSAGE OF GOVERNOR HOFFMAN RELATING 
TO THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 

Showing the Value of Real Estate, etc., etc. ; together with a Comparison between 
New York and other Cities. 



Executive Chamber, Albany, 

To the Legislature : January 2d, 1872. 

The financial condition of New York City is a matter of great interest to 
the people of the State at large, and, in some degree, to the commercial world, 
its stocks and bonds being held for investment at home and abroad. In view 
of the recent events, I deemed it my duty to procure for you full information 
rs to its liabilities and resources, and addressed a letter to the Chairman of 
the State Board of Commissioners for Revision of the Tax Laws, the Hon. 
David A. Wells, who seemed to me specially fitted for the work, requesting 
him to investigate and report to me. In consequence of delay in his obtaining 
some of the facts, his report did not reach me until my annual message was in 
print. My letter to him and his reply are as follows : 

State of New York, Executive Chamber, 
Albany, November 25th, 1871. 
My Dear Sir — The financial condition and credit of New York City are of 
interest as well to the people of the State at large as to its own citizens. It is 
important that the actual condition of our great metropolis in reference to its 
indebtedness and its resources should be made known with accuracy ; and I 
desire to communicate the facts to the Legislature and the people of the State 
in my next message. Will you undertake to investigate the matter in my 

behalf? 

Very truly yours, 
Hon. David A. Wells, " JOHN T HOFFMAN. 

Chairman, etc. 



82 APPENDIX XIV. 

New York, December 28th, 1871. 
Sir — In response to your note of November 25th, requesting me to investi- 
gate and report to you on the relation which exists between the indebtedness 
of the city and county of New York, and the resources available for the pay- 
ment of such indebtedness ; or the extent of the resources of property which 
may be fully regarded as constituting an adequate and inalienable security 
for the ultimate payment in principal and interest of such indebtedness, I have 
the honor to submit the following exhibit : 

FUNDED DEBT. 

By report furnished on request by Hon. A. H. Green, Comptroller, it appears 
that the funded debt — bearing five, six, and -".even per cent, interest — of the 
city and county of New York, was, on the 16th day of December, 1871, $87,- 
371,808.51 ; and the assets of the sinking fund of the city and county — con- 
sisting of stocks and cash — available for the redemption of debt, were on the 
same day $20,137,093.02 ; thus making the present net funded debt of the city 
and county of New York, $67,234,715.49. 

FLOATING OR TEMPORARY DEBT. 

The temporary or floating debt of the city and county of New York — con- 
sisting of bonds issued in anticipation of receipts and assessments, arrears of 
interest, State taxes, unpaid warrants and the like — was on the 16th day of 
December, 1871, $28,259,071.35 ; or, deducting cash on hand— $6,959,919.62 in 
the city and county treasury — $21,299,152.73. 

In addition to the above, the Comptroller also reports claims already pre- 
sented on unsettled accounts, to an estimated aggregate of $6,000,000 ; which 
last included would make the total ascertained debt and "claims presented" 
of the city and county of New York, on the 16th of December, 1871, $94,523,- 
867.22. 

PROSPECTIVE INDEBTEDNESS. 

So much for the present aspect of the indebtedness of the city and county 
of New York. In respect to the future, it is to be noted : 

First. — That much of the existing temporary and floating debt of the city 
and county of New York as above indicated — including an aggregate of assess- 
ment bonds issued in anticipation of tax receipts of $14,950,700.00 — is redeem- 
able from the collection of assessments, or arrears of taxes, and that a very 
considerable amount of these assessments and arrears is certain to be collected ; 
and, 

Second. — That the city holds bonds and mortgages on account of sales of 
real estate to the amount of $1,132,893.26; the proceeds of which, when col- 
lected, are applicable for an increase of the sinking fund held for the redemp- 
tion of the funded debt. 

On the other hand, it is known that claims to a very considerable amount 
for services rendered and materials furnished to the several departments of 
the city and county government, during the year 1871 and previously, are yet 
to be presented, and that the carrying out of such public works as are already 
in progress, or certain to be authorized, will also require further additional 
expenditures. 

But in estimating the amount of these prospective requirements for expend- 



APPENDIX XIV- 83 

iture, it should not be overlooked, that the amount of claims against the city 
yet to be presented is not likely to be in excess of the arrears of assessments 
and taxes yet to be collected; and further, that the amount to be hereafter 
expended 'on account of public improvements cannot, with any regard for 
economy and moderation, ever prove disproportionate to the concurrent increase 
in the material resources of the city, arising from its certain and rapid increase 
in wealth, business, and population. 

So that, making every allowance for contingencies, or any immediate 
advances on account of public improvements, the total present liabilities of 
New York city and county may be safely estimated as not in excess of one 
hundred millions of dollars ; and further, that the ratio which the liabilities 
of the city and county at present sustain to their assets and resources is not 
likely to be changed for the worse in the future ; certainly not if the safeguards 
against corruption and extravagant expenditure, suggested by recent experi- 
ence, are by the Legislature authorized and provided. 

INFLUENCE OP PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS IN AUGMENTING THE SOUPvCES OF 
MUNICIPAL REVENUE. 

As bearing upon the question of future municipal liabilities, on account of 
expenditures for public improvements, it is interesting to note the result which 
has followed one of the largest single items of expenditure authorized by the 
city for such purpose, and which at the time of its inception was denounced by 
many as a measure of indefensible extravagance. We refer to the expendi- 
tures incurred by reason of the construction of the " Central Park ;" the cost 
of which, up to 1869, is returned at $10,463,965.00. 

Now, an examination of all the facts pertaining to this expenditure will 
show, that, so far from its having been a burden upon the city treasury, it has 
really proved a direct and important source of revenue. Thus in 1856, before 
the Park was commenced, the total valuation of real estate for taxation in the 
three wards around the Park, the 12th, 19th, and 22d, was $26,429,566.00 ; but in 
in 1868, when the Park had been practically completed, the valuation of the 
same property for assessment was returned at $80,070,415.00, an increase in ten 
years of $53,640,850.00. And further, the revenue received by taxation on this 
increased valuation was sufficient, in 1870, to not only pay the interest on all 
the bonds of the city issued for the Park purchase and construction, but actu- 
ally afforded a surplus of over ($3,000,000) three millions of dollars ; or a sum 
sufficient, if used as a sinking fund, to pay the entire principal and interest 
of the cost of the Park, in less time than the Park was in the course of con- 
struction. 

ASSETS AND RESOURCES. 

The maximum of the liabilities of the city and county, on account of indebt- 
edness, having been thus estimated, we come next to the no less important 
consideration of the assets and resources available for the payment of such 
indebtedness ; or the real tangible property which may be properly regarded 
in the nature of security or guaranty for the payment of such obligations of 
indebtedness a^ the city and county of New York may have lawfully issued. 

Any valuation of the public property of the city must, from necessity, be 
very indefinite, inasmuch as many of the items which would be included in 
any inventory — as the streets, sewers, lamps, public monuments, and the like - 



84 



APPENDIX XIV 



are not susceptible of a money valuation, and if attached would be practically 
of no benefit in the hands of a city creditor ; but apart from these, it cannot be 
doubted that the value of the lands and buildings, wharfs, water, ferry, and 
market rights in possession of the city and county, and which can be readily 
convertible in open market into a money equivalent, is in excess of every pres- 
ent municipal or county indebtedness. 

The valuation of the public property of the city of New York, given by the 
Mayor in an official communication to the Board of Supervisors, August 10th, 
1871, was $24-2,985.499.00. 

In this valuation were comprised the following: 

Markets $4,767,374 00 

Sundry Lots of Land 2,719,307 00 

Wharfs and Piers 13,322,433 00 

Public Parks and Squares 106,416,490 00 

Total $126,725,574 00 

Next to the so-called public property of the city and county, the property 
most readily available for attachment and levy in case of a default in the pay- 
ment of the principal or interest of the city's indebtedness, is the real estate 
of the city and county, the revenue derived from the assessment and taxation 
of which constitutes also the main element and strength of its municipal 
credit. 

The valuation of this class of property for the year 1871, as returned by 
the Commissioners of Taxes and confirmed by the Board of Supervisors, was 
$769,306,410.00. But it ought to be clearly understood, that this valuation for 
tax purposes does not represent any fair valuation of the property assessed, or 
even an approximation thereto, and in great part for the following reasons : 

The taxation required to defray the expenditures of the State, as a whole, 
is apportioned to the several counties of the State, according to their property 
valuation ; and hence there has been for years, and is now, a strife between 
the different boards of county officials, to run down the valuation of property 
to the very lowest practical figure, in order to divert as large a proportion of 
the State taxation as possible from themselves, and throw it upon their neigh- 
bors ; and as some of the counties in the interior of the State have been so 
successful in doing this, as to actually reduce their valuation to thirty, twenty, 
and even a smaller proportion of the real and true value of the property 
assessed, a similar course of procedure has been forced upon the tax officials 
of New York, as a matter of necessity and local protection. And thus it has 
come about that, instead of a returned assessment valuation of $769,306,410.00, 
for 1871-'2, representing the true market value of the real estate of the city 
and county of New York, in private ownership, it does not, in all probability, 
represent more than forty per cent, of such true value; an estimate which, 
instead of being a conjecture, is based on a large amount of evidence, recently 
collected by an expert for the Board of Commissioners for Revising the Laws 
of the State relative to Taxation. 

The conclusion, therefore, seems warranted that the value of the real estate 
of the city of New York — public and private — which may be fairly regarded 
as an available security for the liquidation of the city and county debts, can 



APPENDIX XI. 85 

not be less than two thousand million dollars, on which the present debt, as 
above estimated, namely, $100,000,000, would be equivalent to a mortgage of 
five per cent. 

In this estimate it will be observed that no account has been taken of the 
valuation of the personal property owned or held by citizens of the city or 
or county of New York. The amount of such property valued and assessed 
for the year 1871-2 was $306,947,223.00. The investigations of the State Com- 
missioners lead, however to the conclusion, that this amount does not repre- 
sent so much as twenty per cent, of the real value of this description of property 
concentrated in the city of New York ; or, in other words, that the true value 
of the personal property of New York city cannot be estimated at less than 
fifteen hundred millions. Much of this property, it must be acknowledged, 
can never be reached for assessment purposes by any law which the ingenuity 
of man can devise ; or which any civilized poople would tolerate in respect to 
execution ; but, whether returned for assessment or not, it nevertheless exists, 
aud by increasing the ability to pay, operates to decrease the real burden of 
taxation imposed on other property of a more tangible and accessible character. 

It is also to be noted, that if the new plan of assessing personal property 
recommended by the State Board of Commissioners, and which is to be pre- 
sented this winter to the Legislature in the form of a definite code, is adopted, 
namely, doing away with the direct assessment of individuals for personal 
property, and substituting therefor, as an equivalent, the assessment of indi- 
viduals on a valuation of three times the rent or rental value of the premises 
by them occupied, the amount or equivalent of such property returned for 
assessment and taxation will be very greatly increased ; and the financial 
resources of the city be thereby correspondingly augmented. 

INCREASE OF NEW YORK IN POPULATION AND WEALTH. 

In estimating the prospective ability of the city of New York to sustain and 
liquidate indebtedness, the recent and prospective increase of the city in popu- 
lation and wealth constitutes an element of not a little importance. Thus, from 
1820 to the year preceding the outbreak of the civil war, 1860, the average rate 
of increase for each successive period of five years was 28 per cent. ; a continu- 
ous rate of growth probably without precedent in any country. During the 
period of the war, or from 1860 to 1865, the population of the city decreased 9% 
per cent. Since 1865, or during the five years from 1865 to 1870 inclusive, the 
gain in population was 26% per cent. ; thus indicating that the average rate of 
increase experienced prior to 1860, was again likely to be approximated. 

The increase in the valuation of the property of the city and county for 
assessment purposes, during the ten years from 1860 to 1870, was 8% per cent. 

The present increase in the value of the real estate of the whole city for 
assessment purposes, is estimated by experts to average about five per cent, per 
annum* 

* The annual message of the Mayor tells us New York has an area of twenty-two square 
miles, and twenty-nine miles of water front; four hundred and sixty miles of streets, roads, 
and avenues, nineteen thousand street gaslights, and is penetrated underground by three 
hundred and forty miles of Croton water pipes, and two hundred and seventy-five miles of 
sewers: lias a population of nearly a million, one thousand horse-railway cars, two hundred 
and sixty-seven omnibuses, about twelve thousand licensed vehicles, and as manv more pri- 
vate vehicles; a city which, in ten months, paid the Federal Government one hundred and 
91 



Sti APPENDIX XIY. 

RELATION OF TAXATION TO POPULATION AND PROPERTY. 

It is also interesting to note the relation which taxation sustains to popula- 
tion and property in New York and some of the other leading cities of the 
country. The following data are derived from the most authentic sources : 

City of New York. — Population, 1870, 953,292 ; aggregate State, city, 
county, and school taxes, 1870, $25,403,859.00 ; special taxes as estimated by 
officials, $2,000,000.00 ; total taxation, $27,403,859.00. Taxation per capita, 
$29.08. 

Boston. — Population, 1870, 250,525 ; aggregate of all taxation, 1870, 
$9,050,420.00 ; taxation per capita, $36.00. 

Chicago. — Population, 1870, 298,977; total taxation, general and special, 
1870, $9,356,333.00 ; taxation per capita, $30.00. 

But as in the opinion of some experts the burdens of taxation in any com- 
munity are properly represented by the relation which the aggregate of the 
annual levy of taxes sustains to the value of property assessed, attention is 
further asked to the following comparisons: 

In Boston and Philadelphia real estate is returned for assessment at nearly 
its full marketable value. On this basis the relation of taxation to real estate 
valuation in these two cities would be as follows : 

Boston real estate valuation, 1870, $365,593,100.00 ; aggregate taxation, 
1870, $9,050,420.00 ; ratio of taxation to real property valuation, 1 to 40. 

Philadelphia real estate valuation, 1871, $491,844,096.00; aggregate taxa- 
tion, 1871. $9,026,753.00 ; ratio of taxation to real property valuation, 1 to 54. 

Cincinnati real estate valuation as made anew for 1871, $123,427,888.00 ; 
aggregate taxation, 1871, $4,004,035.00 ; ratio of taxation to real property valua- 
tion, 1 to 30. 

In the city of New York, on the other hand, on valuation of real estate 
acknowledged to be only about 40 per cent, of the real property, the ratio of 
aggregate taxation to real property valuation would have been in 1870, as 1 to 
27; but if the valuation of the real estate of New York were advanced in pro- 
portion to the value taken for assessment purposes in Boston and Philadelphia, 
the ratio, instead of being as 1 to 27, would be much more favorable than in 
either of the cities above mentioned, or in the approximative ratio of at least 
1 to 65. 

It is therefore evident, that in comparison with the actual accumulated and 
tangible wealth of the city of New York, any liability, on account of indebted- 
ness, which the city has as yet incurred, or is prospectively likely to incur, is 
very insignificant ; and, with a reasonably honest, efficient, and economical gov- 
ernment, such as public opinion and legislative authority, guided by recent 
experience, seems certain to compel, there can be no good reason why the inter- 
est-bearing debt obligations of the city should not be regarded as the most 
desirable of investments. I am, yours, most respectfully, 

DAVID A. WELLS. 
Chairman Board of Commissioners for Revision of the Laws of the State of New 

York relating to the Assessment and Collection of Taxes. 
To Hon. John T. Hoffman, Governor of the State of New York. 

twenty millions of dollars for duties on imports, and exported in the same time two hundred 
and fifty-one millions of dollars' worth of merchandise.— Note by the Author. 



APPENDIX XIV 



87 



I have also received a letter, dated 29th December, 1871. from Hon. Andrew 
H. Green, Comptroller of the city of New York, in which he says : 

" Immediate legislation is essential for the maintenance of the credit of the 
city by the meeting of the obligations maturing early in January, and to make 
provision for past claims which are due and which are of pressing importance. 
Equally important is prompt legislation to make provision for the maintenance 
of the Government of 1872. 

" As the law appears now (Chap. 583, sec. 3, of 1871), no authority exists to 
make appropriations till May nest, leaving the four first months of the year 
1872 without any provision by which payments of necessary expenses for these 
months can be made." 

I respectfully ask your immediate attention to those suggestions, and such 
early legislation with reference to them as may be necessary and proper. 

JOHN T. HOFFMAN. 



APPENDIX XV. 



HISTORY OF THE SCHOOLS AND THE PUBLIC 
SCHOOL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK CITY. 

ADDRESS 

DELIVERED AT THE ORGANIZATION MEETING OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC 

INSTRUCTION OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, ON THE 29TH DAY OF 

APRIL, 1871, BY THE PRESIDING OFFICER, 

COMMISSIONER HOOPER C. VAN VORST. 



* * The sentiment of the people of New York in favor of public instruction 
was early developed, and Las been of constant, steady, and progressive growth. 
It has long since been fixed as a wise State policy. Even in its colonial con- 
dition some efforts were made in that direction ; but when the State had come 
to be thoroughly organized, and its political status established, one of the first 
of its deliberate acts was a provision made for the organization of a system of 
instruction for the young. The importance, as a measure of State, of the 
establishment of a system of common-school education was apparent to the 
mind of Gov. George Clinton, # who, as early as 1792, called attention of the 
Legislature to it in his annual message. Under his administration, and upon 
his recommendation, the first important and practical legislation was had 
looking to the foundation of a sound system of public instruction, and the sum 
of fifty thousand dollars a year — a large appropriation for those days — for five 
years was made for this object. In 1798, and before the expiration of the five 
years limited by the act, schools had been established in a majority of the then 
counties of the State, and about sixty thousand children during that year 
received public instuction. The legislation so happily inaugurated by Gov- 
ernor Clinton was further supported by subsequent executives and legislatures. 
Through the encouragement of Governors Jay and Tompkins in the early 
period of its history, and in later years of Governors Marcy, Seward, and others, 



APPENDIX XV. 89 

all legislation needed to firmly establish and liberally sustain the system was 
from time to time secured. It is impracticable now to follow the various stages 
in the history of this important subject. But its movement, although at times 
retarded, steadily progressed. Appropriations were from time to time made 
as its wants demanded, and funds were established for its support and complete 
administration. The amount of public money now appropriated in the various 
districts of the State for the support of free schools exceeds ten millions of 
dollars, and which sum is chiefly raised by direct taxation ; and the number of 
children who received instruction during the past year is about nine hundred 
and seventy thousand. To such a magnitude has this system grown in the 
State, under its fostering care, in the space of about sixty years. 

NEW YORK CITY SCHOOLS. 

But I beg to call attention for a few moments to the history of the schools 
of this city, which has a peculiar interest to us. When that distinguished 
statesman, De Witt Clinton, was Mayor of the city of New York, a Free School 
Society was established in the city " for the education of such poor children as 
do not belong to or are not provided for by any religious society." This 
organization was formed in pursuance of an act of incorporation obtained from 
the Legislature, the Mayor himself being one of the incorporators, and the first 
President of the Society. The first school under this act of incorporation was 
opened in the year 1806. It depended chiefly for its support on the contribu- 
tions of the benevolent. In the course of twenty years this excellent society 
had established in the city several well-organized schools, for the support of 
which they had received both municipal and State aid. 

PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY OP NEW YORK CITY. 

In the year 1826 the various schools of this society, together with others 
which were in existence and not under its control, were united and directed 
under the management of a corporation called the " Public School Society." 
This organization gave a new impulse to the cause of popular education, and 
placed the whole system on a broader basis and infused new energy in all its 
operations. This society performed a most useful service to the State and to 
the cause of education during the period of its existence, and those who 
managed its affairs deserve high commendation for their disinterested public 
service. During the existence of this society not less than six hundred 
thousand youth of the city had been educated, and a large number of teachers 
prepared for service. The Board of Education was organized under an act of 
the Legislature, passed April 18th, 1842, which act extended to the city of New 
York the common-school system which prevailed in the other portions of the 
State, the schools under which were managed by officers elected by the people 
for the purpose. The Board of Education commenced its operations as soon 
as its measures could be perfected, and proceeded to erect school-houses and 
gather scholars for instruction. It was evident that the mission of the " Public 
School Society " was now over, that it was neither wise nor economical to have 
two systems of instruction proceeding at the same time, in the same field of 
operation ; it would lead to conflict of opinion, and that both judicious action 
and usefulness would be impaired. This was soon felt by all the friends of 
education and good government. The necessity for unity of system, and 



00 APPENDIXXV. 

administration without distraction became manifest. In 1853, an act of the 
Legislature was passed authorizing the Public School Society to discontinue 
its organization, and to transfer its property, real and personal, to the city of 
New York, and a portion of its trustees to become Commissioners at large of 
the common schools of the city and members of the Board of Education ; and 
its property, valued at over $600,000.00, under the act, and by the action of the 
society itself, passed to the control of the Board of Education, upon whom the 
administration of the common-school system was thenceforth solely to depend. 
The influence of the consolidation of these two organizations into one harmo- 
nious body was beneficial to the salutary working of the system. 

THE BOARD OF EDUCATION. 

Since the year 1853 and up to the present time, the public schools of New 
York have been under the control of this organization, called the " Board of 
Education," the members of which have been elected by the people, and 
during that period of time our school system has attained to its present great 
prosperity and usefulness. Under its care and management has been perfected 
a wise and judicious system of instruction ; it has progressed and expanded 
and adapted itself to the improvements which have taken place in science and 
arts and the methods of instruction. The cause of education or its adminis- 
tration has not been stationary. It has steadily grown and increased in its 
means of usefulness. It has appropriated to itself and endeavored to put in 
practice in the schools whatever experience has established to be beneficial in 
method or subjects of instruction. The results of its operations may this day 
be regarded with emotions of honorable pride by every citizen of New York, 
Under the means and influences which this Board has furnished, the great 
mass of the children and youth of the city have been educated. Contemplate 
for one moment the result of its work. It has established and well maintained 
thirty-four Primary Departments and Schools, in which were instructed this 
day at least sixty-five thousand children. It has established and well main- 
tained eighty-nine Grammar Schools, male and female, in which were instucted 
this day over thirty-five thousand children. 

The system of instruction of the males terminates in a full and complete 
course of collegiate education of four years in the College of New York, fitting 
and preparing them for any sphere of action or usefulness in life ; and that of 
the females in a Normal College, which at this time contains over one thousand 
pupils who are themselves being educated and trained to become the teachers 
and guides of others. The number of schools wholly under the control of 
the Board of Education was 221, in addition to which there are some fifty 
corporate schools, partly under the charge of this Board, and who participate 
in the enjoyment of the public moneys. In the work of instruction are daily 
engaged 363 male teachers and 2,326 female teachers, making a total of 2,689 
teachers. And the extent of the work accomplished by these earnest and 
painstaking toilers in this interesting department of the work of life, charged 
with so much responsibility for the present and future, to the individual and 
to the State, may be appreciated when it is considered that during the year 
past nearly 235,000 pupils have received instruction in the public schools, and 
that the average daily attendance in all the schools under the charge of the 
Board is over one hundred thousand. 



APPENDIX XV. fll 

FEMALE TEACHERS. 

When it is considered that quite eight tenths of all the instruction of the 
youth of the city of New York, of both sexes, is performed by females, no one 
can well exaggerate the importance of the results to follow from the establish- 
ment of the Normal College for their education and discipline. This 
institution, completely and thoroughly organized during the past year, under 
its efficient President and able corps of teachers and instructors, may well 
command the interested attention and invoke the best wishes and prayers of 
all who are interested in successful and useful education. But the Board of 
Education, as the other organizations which have preceded it, has done its 
work. Under that name it belongs to the past. But from this rapid sum- 
mary of what it has accomplished it must be conceded that its mission was a 
good one, and its work, if not perfect, was at least well done. 

THE NEW DEPARTMENT. 
The Department of Public Instruction, under the recent act of the Legisla- 
ture amending the city charter, now commences its career under our direction 
as its Commissioners. I have deemed it proper to give this brief but yet very 
imperfect survey of the past history and accomplishment of the cause of educa- 
tion in New York, in order that we may be sensibly and properly impressed 
with the importance of the work in which we are engaged, and with the mag- 
nitude of the trust to which we have, by the appointment of the Mayor of 
New York, succeeded. The change at this time wrought is not in the system 
of the schools, nor in their administration, nor in the course of instruction. 
Nothing is extended or diminished. The recent act establishes a connection 
between the administration of public instruction and the municipal govern- 
ment. The Department of Public Instruction is in name and in fact a branch 
and department of the city government. If instruction is the business of the 
State, this is as it should be. Our duties as Commissioners are no more and 
no less than they were as members of the Board of Education. 

But as Commissioners of Public Instruction our term of office has been 
extended, nor may the number of this body be increased or diminished, except 
by force of additional legislation or by death or resignation of the members. 
There is, then, before this Commission, a term of five years for disinterested 
and useful devotion to the cause of education, and the good of the State, and 
the happiness and welfare of its people. We have succeeded to the public 
schools when they are in successful operation, well officered with principals 
and teachers; and when they enjoy to a very large extent the confidence, and 
when they are earnestly regarded with the warm interest of the people. For 
we all know that these schools lie close to the heart of the people of this great 
metropolis. 

We take these schools when our city has a population of one million of 
souls, and at a time when the proper education and discipline of our youth is 
justly regarded by every observing mind as the foundation of the continued 
prosperity and safety of the State and city. Those who have preceded us have 
so perfected and amplified the subjects and methods of instruction as to have 
brought the means of education and the acquisition of useful elemenlary knowl- 
edge, in an attractive form, to every house, and within the reach of every child 
in the city, of teachable years. They have erected for us large, commodious, and 



92 APPENDIX XV, 

well-ventilated school-houses, constructed with reference to the comfort, cheer- 
fulness, and health of the teacher and the pupils. We have, at our hands, already 
supplied books and apparatus such as are suggested by the latest improve- 
ments in arts and science, and advanced methods of instruction. And we have 
to aid us an able and experienced Superintendent of the schools, with his assist- 
ants, upon whom is imposed the duty of visitation and examination, without 
which no system is complete, and a large band of skilled teachers and instruct- 
ors eager for the discharge of their duties, and ready to co-operate with us and 
second our efforts to further extend the blessings and advantages of education. 
Both the State and city are liberal in the dispensation of their funds to us ; no 
reasonable demand for money for the purpose of public instruction has ever 
been denied. For the coming year there is placed at our disposal two million 
seven hundred thousand dollars. These weighty considerations should give us 
a corresponding sense of our duties and responsibilities, and we should be pre- 
pared to bring to this work a disposition faithfully and as intelligently as we 
can, to discharge its duties, as we will justly be held to a great accountability. 
Ours is not a work of construction, but of improvement and extension. 

********** 

Dr. Franklin, as early as 1752, advocated a scheme for the education of the 
youth in Pennsylvania, which embraced instruction in book-keeping, the rudi- 
ments of geometry, astronomy, geography, history, logic, and natural science. 

In addition to the Latin and Greek, he advocated instruction in the French, 
German, and Spanish languages. To all of which was to be added good morals 
and good manners. Franklin thus early saw how useful to the American youth, 
business man, and citizen, would prove the knowledge of these modern tongues 
— the languages of people with whom, as he foresaw, we were to have exten- 
sive commercial intercourse, and who in a great degree would in time become 
a constituent part of our own people. * * * 

Gentlemen, in the administration of this trust, as Commissioners of Public 
Instruction, let us be ever impressed with its importance and its responsibility. 
Let it be our office to devote our time and our attention to the duties of the 
place. Let it be ours to suggest and carry out any needed improvement and 
just advance in the cause of education and in methods and systems of instruc- 
tion, and where errors exist let us correct them in all cases. Let us see to it 
that the youth of this generation be well instructed ; let us place within their 
reach every means of knowledge which will make their lives more useful and 
happy, and enable them to become good citizens of the Republic, always remem- 
bering that no system of edncation is valuable which does not tend to improve 
the intellect, strengthen the physical an 1 develop the moral nature. 

No education is valuable which does not lead the pupil into habits of right 
thought, knowledge, and action, and which does not furnish him with the 
means to be of service to the State, by being a law-abiding, peaceful, intelli- 
gent, and virtuous citizen, whose highest aim in life is to be faithful in all his 
relations to his God, his country, and mankind. 



APPENDIX XVI. 



NEW YORK SOCIETY IN THE OLDEN TIME. 

BY RT. REV. BISHOP KIP.* 



To lament the days that are gone, and believe the past better than the 
present, is a tendency which has been remarked as far back as the days of Sol- 
omon. " Say not thou," says the wise king," What is the cause that the former 
days were better than these 1 for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this." 
However this may be, it is a propensity, which has always existed, to compare 
unfavorably the present with the distant past. The Golden Age of which poets 
sang was in " our fathers' day, and in the old time before them." 

From this feeling the writer realizes that he is not free, and, in many 
respects, might be inclined to impute his estimate of the present to the waning 
light in which he sees it. When dealing, however, with facts with which he 
is well acquainted, he feels that he cannot be prejudiced ; and in this way it is 
that he contrasts the society of the present with that which once existed in 
New York. From his distant home he looks back on the rush and hurry of 
life as it now exists in his native city ; and, while he realizes its increased glit- 
ter and splendor, he feels that it has depreciated from the dignity and high 
tone which once characterized it. 

Of the society of the olden time he can, of course, know but little by actual 
experience. His knowledge of it began when the old regime was -just passing 
away. In the days of his childhood, the men of the Revolution were fast going 
down to the grave. Of these he knew some in their old age. His father's 
contemporaries, however, were somewhat younger, though brought up under 
the same inflences. But when that generation departed, the spirit which had 
aided in forming their characters had gone also, never again to be felt. To 
many of these men he looked up a6 if they were superior beings; and, indeed, 
he has felt, in all his passage through life, that he has never seen the equals 
of those who then stood forward prominently in public affairs. 

* This article originally appeared in Putnam's Magazine for September, 1870. 
95 



94 APPENDIX XVI. 

The earliest notice we have of colonial society is in Mrs. Grant's delightful 
American Lady. She was the daughter of a British officer who came over 
with troops dhring the old French war, and her reminiscences begin about 
1760. Her residence was principally in Albany, with the Schuyler family. 
Still, she was brought in contact with the leading families of the colony, and, 
as she was in the habit of often visiting New York, she learned much of the 
state of things in that city. She writes thus of the old Dutch and colonial fami- 
lies of that day : " They bore about them the tokens of former affluence and 
respectability, such as family plate, portraits of their ancestors executed in a 
superior style, and great numbers of original paintings, some of which were 
much admired by acknowledged judges." In New York, of course, the highest 
degree of refinement was to be seen, and she says: "An expensive and elegant 
style of living began already to take place in New York, which was, from the 
residence of the Governor and Commander-in-Chief, become the seat of a little 
court." 

Society, in that day, was very stationary. About 1635 the first Dutch set- 
tlers came out, and the country was much of it occupied by their large grants, 
many of which had attached to them manorial rights. They brought with 
them some of the social distinctions of the old country. In the cities of Hol- 
land, for a long time, there had been " great " and " small " burgher rights. In 
Amsterdam the "great burghers" monopolized all the offices, and were also 
exempt from attainder and confiscation of goods. The " small burghers " had 
the freedom of trade only. In 1657 this " great burgher " right was introduced 
into New Amsterdam by Governor Stuyvesant. 

About fifty years after the arrival of the early Dutch settlers, they were fol- 
lowed by the Huguenots, driven abroad principally by the revocation of the 
Edict of Nantes, and including in their number members of some of the best 
families in France. Thus came the Jays, De Lanceys, Rapaljes, De Peysters, 
Pintards, &c. In 1688 the English took possession of the colony, and, from that 
time, English settlers increased. The colony became (as Paulding says) "a 
place in which to provide for younger sons." Still, this often brought out 
scions of distinguished families and the best blood in England. 

Thus matters stood until the Revolution. The country was parceled out 
among great proprietors. We can trace them from the city of " New Amster- 
dam " to the northern part of the State. In what is now the thickly-populated 
city were the lands of the Stuyvesants, originally the Bowerie of the old Gov- 
ernor. Next above was the grant to the Kip family, called " Kip's Bay," made 
in 1638. In the center of the island were the possessions of the De Lanceys. 
Opposite, on Long Island, was the grant to the Laurence family. We cross 
over Harlaem River and reach " Moriissanea," given to the Morris family. 
Beyond this, on the East River, was " De Lancey's Farm," another grant to 
that powerful family ; while on the Hudson, to the west, was the lower Van 
Courtlandt manor, and the Phillipse manor. Above, at Peekskill, was the 
upper manor of the Van Courtlandts. Then came the manor of Livingston, 
then the Beekmans, then the manor of Kipsburgh, purchased by the Kip 
family from the Indians, in 1686, and made a royal grant by Governor Dongan, 
two years afterward. Still higher up was the Van Rensselaer manor, twenty- 
four miles by forty-eight ; and, above that, the possessions of the Schuylers. 
Further west, on the Mohawk, were the broad lands of Sir William Johnson, 






APPENDIX XVI- 95 

created a baronet for his services in the old French and Indian wars, who 
lived in a rude magnificence at Johnson Hall. All this was sacrificed by his 
son, Sir John, for the sake of loyalty, when he took up arms for the King and 
was driven into Canada. The title, however, is still held by his grandson, and 
stands recorded in the baronetage of England. 

The very names of places, in some cases, show their history. Such, for 
instance, is that of Yonkers. The word " Junker " (pronounced Younker), in the 
languages of northern Europe, means the nobly-born — the gentleman. In 
West Chester, on the Hudson River, still stands the old manor-house of the 
Phillipse family. The writer remembers, in his early days, when visiting there, 
the large rooms and richly-ornamented ceilings, with quaint old formal gardens 
about the house. When, before the.Revolution, Mr. Phillipse lived there, " lord 
of all he surveyed," he was always spoken of by his tenantry as " the Yonker " 
— the gentleman — par excellence. In fact, he was the only person of that social 
rank in that part of the country. In this way the town, which subsequently 
grew up about the old manor-house, took the name of Yonkers. 

This was a state of things which existed in no other part of the continent. 
In new England there were scarcely any large landed proprietors. The country 
was divided up among small farmers ; and, when the Revolution commenced, the 
people almost unanimously espoused its cause. The aristocratic element, which 
in New York rallied around the Crown, was here entirely wanting. The only 
exception to this which we can remember, was the case of the Gardiners, of 
Maine. Their wide lands were confiscated for their loyalty ; but, on account 
of some informality, after the Revolution, they managed to recover their prop- 
erty, and are still seated as Gardiner. 

At the South, where so much was said about their being "the descendants 
of the Cavaliers," there were no such feudal relations. The planters had no 
tenantry ; they had slaves. Their system, therefore, was similar to that of the 
serfdom of Russia. With the colonial families of New York it was the English 
feudal system. 

Hereditary landed property was, in that day, invested with the same dignity 
in New York which it has now in Europe ; and, for more than a century, these 
families retained their possessions, and directed the infant colony. They formed 
a coterie of their own, and, generation after generation, married among them- 
selves. Turn to the early records of New York, and you find all places of official 
dignity filled by a certain set of familiar names, many of which, since the Rev 
olntion have entirely disappeared. As we have remarked, they occupied a posi- 
tion similar to that of the English country gentleman, with his many tenants, 
and were everywhere looked up to with the same kind of respect, which is now 
accorded to them. Their position was an acknowldged one, for social distinc- 
tions then were marked and undisputed. They were the persons who were 
placed in office in the Provincial Council and Legislature, and no one pretended 
to think it strange. " They," says a writer on that day, " were the gentry of 
the country, to whom the country, without a rebellious thought, took off its 
hat." 

In that age the very dress plainly marked the distinctions in society. No 
one who saw a gentleman could mistake his social position. Those people of a 
century ago now look down upon us from their portraits, in costumes which, 
in our day, we see nowhere but on the stage. Velvet coats with (fold lace, large 



»t> APPENDIX XIV. 

sleeves, and ruffles at tlie hands, wigs and embroidered vests, with the accom- 
panying rapier, are significant of a class removed from the rush and bustle of 
life — the " nati consumere fruges" — whose occupation was not — to toil. No 
one, in that day, below their degree, assumed their dress ; nor was the lady 
surpassed in costliness of attire by her servant. In fact, at that time there 
were gentlemen and ladies, and there were servants. 

The manner in which these great landed estates were arranged fostered a 
feudal feeling. They were granted by Government to the proprietors on con- 
dition that, in a certain number of years, they settled so many tenants upon 
them. These settlers were generally Germans of the lower class, who had been 
brought over free. Not being able to pay their passage-money, the captain 
took them without charge, and then they were sold by him to the landed pro- 
prietors for a certain number of years, in accordance with the size of the family. 
The sum received remunerated him for the passage-money. They were called, 
in that day , Redemptioners ; and, by the time their term of service — sometimes 
extending to seven years — had expired, they were acquainted with the ways 
of the country and its manner of farming, had acquired some knowledge of the 
language, and were prepared to set up for themselves. Thus both parties were 
benefited. The landed proprietor fulfilled his contract with the Government, 
and the Redemptioners were trained for becoming independent settlers. 

From these Redemptioners many of the wealthy farming families now liv- 
ing in the Hudson River counties are descended. In an early day they pur- 
chased lands which enriched their children. The writer's father once told him 
of an incident which occurred in his grandfather's family. One of his German 
tenants, having served out his time of several years' duration, brought to his 
late owner a bag of gold which had come with him from the old country, and 
was sufficient to purchase a farm. " But," said his master, in surprise, " how 
comes it, Hans, with all this money, that you did not pay your passage, instead 
of serving as a Redemptioner so long ?" " Oh," said the cautious emigrant from 
the Rhine, " I did not know English, and I should have been cheated. Now I 
know all about the country, and I can set up for myself." 

These tenants, however, looked up with unbounded reverence to the landed 
proprietors who owned them, and it took much more than one generation to 
enable them to shake off this feeling, or begin to think of a social equality. 

There was, in succeeding times, one curious result of this system in the con 
fusion of family names. These German Redemptioners often had but one 
name. For instance, a man named Paul us was settled as a tenant on an estate. 
As his children grew up, they needed something to distinguish them. They 
were Paulus' Jan, and Paulus' Hendrick. This naturally changed to Jan Pau 
lus and Hendrick Paulus, and thus Paulus became the family name. 

This was well enough. But they frequently took the name of their propri 
etor. He was known as Morris' Paulus, and this, in the next generation, natu 
rally changed to Paulus Morris, and his children assumed that as their family 
name. In this way there are many families in the State of New York bearing 
the names of the old landed proprietors, which have been thus derived. 

Some years ago a literary gentleman, who was compiling facts with regard 
to the early history of the State, came to the writer very much puzzled. 
" Who," said he, " are these people? I find their names in Dutchess County ; 
and yet, looking at Holgate's pedigree of that family, I see they cannot belong 



APPENDI XXVI. 97 

to it. Where did they come from, and where do they belong ?" The above 
account was a satisfactory solution of the mystery. 

But to return to this system. It was carried out to an extent of which, in 
this day, most persons are ignorant. On the Van Rensselaer manor there were, 
at one time, several thousand tenants, and their gathering was like that of the 
Scottish clans. When a member of the family died, they came down to Albany 
to do honor at the funeral, and many were the hogsheads of good ale which 
were broached for them. They looked up to the " Patroon " with a reverence 
which was still lingering in the writer's early day, notwithstanding the inroads 
of democracy. And before the Revolution, this feeling was shared by the 
whole country, When it was announced in New York, a century ago, that 
the Patroon was coming down from Albany by land, the day he was expected 
to reach the city crowds turned out to see him enter in his coach and-four. 

The reference to the funerals at the Rensselaer manor-house reminds us of 
a description of the burial of Philip Livingston, one of the proprietors of Liv- 
ingston manor, in February, 1749, taken from a paper of that day. It will show 
something of the customs of the times. The services were performed both at 
his town-house in New York, and at the manor. " In the city, the lower 
rooms of most of the houses in Broad Street, where he resided, were thrown 
open to receive visitors. A pipe of wine was spiced for the occasion, and to 
each of the eight bearers, with a pair of gloves, mourning ring, scarf, and 
handkerchief, a monkey-spoon was given." (This was so called from the figure 
of an ape or monkey, which was carved in solido at the extremity of the 
handle. It differed from a common spoon in having a circular and very shallow 
bowl.) " At the manor these ceremonies were all repeated, another pipe of 
wine was spiced, and, besides the same presents to the bearers, a pair of black 
gloves and a handkerchief were given to each of the tenants. The whole 
expense was said to amount to £500." 

Now, all this was a state of things and a manner of social life totally 
unknown in New England. We have already mentioned that most of its 
inhabitants were small farmers, wringing their subsistence from the earth by 
hard labor. Here were literally no servants, but a perfect social equality 
existed in the rural districts. Their " helps" were the sons and daughters of 
neighboring farmers, poorer than themselves, who for a time took these 
situations, but considered themselves as good as their employers. The com- 
paratively wealthy men were in their cities. 

No two races of men could be more different than the New Yorkers of that 
day and the people of New England. There was a perfect contrast in all their 
habits of social life and ways of thinking. The Dutch disliked the Yankees, 
as they called them, most thoroughly. This feeling is shown, in a ludicrous 
way, through the whole of Irving's " Knickerbocker." " The Dutch and the 
Yankees," he says, "never got together without fighting." 

There is a curious development of this prejudice in the following clause, 
which was inserted in the will of a member of a distinguished colonial family 

of New York, dated 1760. " It is my wish that my son, , may have 

the best education that is to be had in England or America ; but my express 
will and directions are, that he never be sent, for that purpose, to the Connecticut 
colonies, lest he should imbibe, in his youth, that low craft and cunning so 
incidental to the people of that eouirty, which is so interwoven in their consti- 



93 APPENDIX XVI. 

tutions tluit all their acts cannot disguise it from the world, though many of 
them, under the sanctified garb of religion, have endeavored to impose them- 
selves on the world as honest men." 

Once in a year, generally, the gentry of New York went to the city to 
transact their business and make their purchases. There they mingled, for a 
time, in its gayeties, and were entertained at the court of the Governor. 
These dignitaries were generally men of high families in England. One of 
them, for instance — Lord Cornbury — was a blood-relative of the royal family. 
They copied the customs and imitated the etiquette enforced " at home," and 
the rejoicings and sorrowings, the thanksgivings and fasts, which were ordered 
at Whitehall, were repeated again on the banks of the Hudson. Some years 
ago the writer was looking over the records of the old Dutch Church in New 
York, when he found, carefully filed away, some of the proclamations for 
these services. One of them, giving notice of a thanksgiving-day, in the reign 
of William and Mary, for some victory in the Low Countries, puts the cele- 
bration ofl a fortnight, to give time for the news to reach Albany. 

During the rest of the year these landlords resided among their tenantry, 
on their estates ; and about many of their old country-houses were associa- 
tions gathered, often coming down from the first settlements of the country, 
giving them an interest which can never invest the new residences of those 
whom later times elevated through wealth. Such was the Van Courtlandt 
manor-house, with its wainscoted rooms and its guest-chamber ; the Rensselaer 
manor-house, where of old had been entertained Talleyrand and the exiled 
princes from Europe ; the Schuyler house, so near the Saratoga battle-field, 
and marked by memories of that glorious event in the life of its owner — (alas, 
that it should have passed away from its founder's family !), and the residence 
of the Livingstons, on the banks of the Hudson, of which Louis Philippe 
expressed such grateful recollection when, after his elevation to the throne, he 
met, in Paris, the son of his former host. 

There was one more of these old places of which we would write, to pre- 
serve some memories which are now fast fading away r , because it was within 
the bounds of our city, and was invested with so many historical associations 
connected with the Revolution. It is the house at Kip's Bay. Though many 
years have passed since it was swept away by the encroachments of the city, 
yet it exists among the recollections of the writer's earliest days, when it was 
still occupied by the family of its founder, and regarded as their first home on 
this continent. It was erected in 1655, by Jacobus Kip, Secretary of the 
Council, who received a grant of that part of the island. There is in the pos- 
session of the family a picture of it as it appeared at the time of the Revolu- 
tion, when still surrounded by venerable oaks. It was a large double house, 
with three windows on one side of the door and two on the other, with one 
large wing. On the right hand of the hall was the dining-room, running from 
front to rear, with two windows looking out over the bay, and two over the 
country on the other side. This was the room which was afterwards invested 
with interest from its connection with Major Andre. In the rear of the house 
was a pear-tree, planted by the ladies of the family in 1700, which bore fruit 
until its destruction in 1851. In this house five generations of the family were 
born . 

Then came the Revolution, and Sargent, in his " Life of Andre," thus gives 



APPENDIX XVI. 99 

its history in those stirring times: " Where now in New York is the unall tir- 
ing and crowded neighborhood of the Second Avenue and Thirty-fifth Street, 
stood in 1780 the ancient Bowerie or country-seat of Jacobus Kip. Built in 
1655, of bricks brought from Holland, encompassed by pleasant trees, and in 
easy view of the sparkling waters of Kip's Bay, on the East River, the man- 
sion remained, even to our own times, in possession of one of its founder's line. 
Here" (continues Sargent, incorporating tue humorous recollections of Irving's 
" Knickerbocker") spread the same smiling meadows, whose appearance had 
so expanded the heart of Oloffe the Dreamer, in the fabulous ages of the col- 
ony ; here still nodded the groves that had echoed back the thunder of Henry 
Kip's musketoon, when that mighty warrior left his name to the surrounding 
waves. When Washington was in the neighborhood, Kip's house had been 
his quarters ; when Howe crossed from Long Island on Sunday, September 
15th, 1776, he debarked at the rocky point hard by, and his skirmishers drove 
our people from their position behind the dwelling. Since then it had known 
many guests. Howe, Clinton, Kniphausen, Percy, were sheltered by its roof. 
The aged owner, with his wife and daughter, remained ; but they had always 
an officer of distinction quartered with them ; and if a part of the family were 
in arms for Congress, as is alleged, it is certain that others were active for the 
Crown. Samuel Kip, of Kipsburgh, led a cavalry troop of his own tenantry 
with great gallantry in De Lancey's regiment ; and, despite severe wounds, 
survived long after the war, a heavy pecuniary sufferer by the cause which, 
with most of the landed gentry of New York, he had espoused." 

In 1780, it was held by Colonel Williams, of the 80th royal regiment ; and 
here, on the evening of the 19th of September, he gave a dinner to Sir Henry 
Clinton and his staff, as a parting compliment to Andre. The aged owner of 
the house was present ; and, when the Revolution was over, he described the 
scene and the incidents of that dinner. At the table, Sir Henry Clinton 
announced the departure of Andre, next morning, on a secret and most import- 
ant expedition, and added (what we have never seen mentioned in any other 
account, and showing what was to have been Andre's reward), " Plain John 
Andre will come back Sir John Andre."* 

Andre — it was said by Mr. Kip — was evidently depressed, and took but lit- 
tle part in the merriment about him; and when, in his turn, it became neces- 
sary for him to sing, he gave the favo ite military chanson attributed to 
Wolfe, who sang it on the eve of the battle of Quebec, in which he died : 

" Why, soldiers, why, 
Should we be melancholy, boys? 
Why, soldiers, why. 
Whose business 'tis to die? 
For should the next campaign 
Send us to Him who made us, boys, 
We're free from pain : 
But should we remain, 
A bottle and kind landlady 
Makes all well again." 

* Mrs. General Riedesel was at this dinner-party, and was one of the guests, who bade 
M'jor Andre farewell.— See Stone's Letters of Mrs. General Iiiedesrf, translated from the Ger- 
man. Vide also page 266 of this work, where Mrs. Riedesel speaks of her parting with 
Andre. 



100 APPENDIX XVI. 

His biographer, after copying this account, adds : " How brilliant soever 
the company, how cheerful the repast, its memory must ever have been fraught 
with sadness to both host and guests. It was the last occasion of Andre's 
meeting his comrades in life. Four short days gone, the hands then clasped 
by friendship were fettered by hostile bonds ; yet nine days more, and the 
darling of the army, the youthful hero of the hour, had dangled from a 
gibbet." 

After the Revolution the place remained in its owner's possession, for his 
age had fortunately prevented him from taking any active part in the contest. 
And when Washington, in the hour of his triumph, returned to New York, he 
went out to visit again those who, in 177G, had been his involuntary hosts. 
Dr. Francis relates an interesting little incident which occurred at the visit: 
" On the old road towards Kingsbridge, on the eastern side of the island, was 
the well-known Kip's Farm, pre-eminently distinguished for its grateful fruits 
— the plum, the peach, the pear, and the apple — and for its choice culture of 
the rosacea. Here the elite often repaired, and here our Washington, now 
invested with Presidential honors, made an excursion, and was presented with 
the rosa gallica, an exotic first introduced into this country in this garden — fit 
emblem of that memorable union of France and the American colonies in the 
cause of Republican freedom." 

In 1851 this old place was demolished. It had then stood two hundred and 
twelve years, and was the oldest house on the island. It was swallowed up 
by the growth of the mighty metropolis, and Thirty-fifth Street runs over the 
spot where once stood the old mansion. A short time after it was deserted, 
the writer made his last visit to it, while most of it was still standing, and the 
stone coat-of-arms over the hall-door was projecting from the half-demolished 
wall. As he stood in the old dining-room, there came back to him visions of 
the many noble and chivalrous men who, in the last two centuries, had feasted 
within its walls. But all these, like the place itself, now live only in the rec- 
ords of the past. 

Such was life in those early days among the colonial families in the country 
and the city. It was simple and unostentatious, yet marked by an affluence 
of everything which could minister to comfort, and also a degree of elegance 
in the surroundings which created a feeling of true refinement. Society was 
easy and natural, without the struggle for precedence which now is so univer- 
sal ; for then every one's antecedents were known, and their positions were 
fixed. The intermarriages, which for more than a century were taking place 
between the landed families, bound them together, and promoted a harmony 
of feeling now not often seen. There were, in that day, such things as old 
associations, and men lived in the past, instead of, as in these times, looking 
only to the future. 

The system of slavery, too, which prevailed, added to the ease of domestic 
life. Negro slaves, at an early day, had been introduced into the colony, and 
every family of standing possessed some. They were employed but little as 
field-laborers, but every household had a few who were domestic servants. 
Like Abraham's servants, they were all "born in the house." They shared 
the same religious instruction with the children of the family, and felt, in 
every respect, as if they were members of it. This mild form of slavery was 
like the system which existed under the tents of the patriarchs on the plains of 



APPENDIX XVI. 101 

Mamre; and there certainly never were happier people than those "men-serv- 
ants and maid-servants." They were seldom separated from their families, or 
sold. The latter was reserved as an extreme case for the incorrigible, and a 
punishment to which it was hardly ever necessary to resort. 

The clansmen of Scotland could not take more pride in the prosperity of 
their chief's family than did these sable retainers in New Amsterdam. In 
domestic affairs they assumed a great freedom of speech, and, in fact, family 
affairs were discussed and settled as fully in the kitchen as in the parlor. The 
older servants, indeed, exercised as full control over the children of the family 
as did their parents. As each black child attained the age of six or seven 
years, it was formally presented to a son or daughter of the family, and was his 
or her particular attendant. This union continued often through life, and of 
stronger instances of fidelity we have never heard than were exhibited in some 
of these cases. Fidelity and affection, indeed, formed the bond between master 
and slave, to a degree which can never exist in this day with hired servants.* 

This state of things continued far down into the present century. In the 
writer's early day his father owned slaves for domestic servants, and he very 
well remembers, when visiting the place of a relative on the Hudson River, see- 
ing the number of slaves about the house. At that time, however, the system 
was just going out ; it had lost its interesting features, and the slaves, still 
remaining at those old places, had become a source of care and anxiety to their 
owners. 

The charm of life in that day was its stability. There was no chance then 
for parvenuum — no stocks in which to dabble, no sudden fortunes made. There 
was but little commerce between the colony and the mother-country, and men 
who embarked in this business were contented to spend their lives in acquiring 
a competence. They never aspired to rival the landed families. With the 
latter, life flowed on from one generation to another in the same even way. 
They lived on their broad lands, and, when they died, the eldest son inherited 
the family residence, while the others were portioned off with farms belonging 
to the estate, but which it could well spare. On their carriages and their silver 
were their arms, which they had brought with them from Europe, by which 
every one knew them, which were used as matters of course, and were distinc- 
tions no one ventured to assume, unless entitled to them. Sometimes these 
were carved in stone and placed over their doors. This was the case with the 
Walton House, which we believe is still standing in Franklin Square (Pearl 
Street) ; and, as we have already mentioned, with the Kip's Bay House. The 
windows of the first Dutch church built in New York were filled with the arms 
of the families at whose expense it was erected. 

In 1774, John Adams, on his way to attend the first Congress, stopped in 
New York. The honest Bostonian was very much struck with " the opulence 
and splendor of the city," and "the elegance of their mode of living," and in 
his Journal freely records his admiration. He speaks of "the elegant countrv- 
scats on the island;" the Broad Way, a fine street, very wide, and in a right 
line from one end to the other of the city ;" " the magnificent new church then 
building which was to cost £20,000 ;" the Bowling Green, which he describes 
as "the beautiful ellipse of land railed in with solid iron, in the centre of 

* Iii this connection gee page 148.— Author. 
96 



102 APPENDIX XVI, 

which is a statue of His Majesty on horseback, very large, of solid lead, gilded 
with gold, on a pedestal of marble, very high." He records that " the streets 
of the town are vastly more regular and elegant than those of Boston, and the 
the houses are more grand, as well as neat." 

The most amusing display is when he is invited to one of these country- 
seats, " near Hudson's River." He writes : " A more elegant breakfast I never 
saw : rich plate, a very large silver coffee-pot, a very large silver tea-pot, napkins 
of the very finest materials, toast and bread and butter in great perfection. 
After breakfast a plate of beautiful peaches, another of pears, and a musk- 
melon, were placed on the table." 

It is evident, however, from his Journal, that he saw little of the best families. 
He was not in a situation to be feted by them, for they had no sympathy with 
the object of his journey. His principal entertainers were two lawyers — Scott 
and Smith — who had grown wealthy by their profession. Among all he men- 
tions as extending civilities to him, the only persons belonging to the aristoc- 
racy of the city were some members of the Livingston family, who, even then, 
were putting themselves forward as leaders in the coming movement. 

The Revolution broke up and swept away this social system. It ruined 
and drove off half the gentry of the province. The social history, indeed, of 
that event has never been written, and never will be. The conquerors wrote 
the story, and they were mostly " new men," who had as much love for those 
they dispossessed as the Puritans had for the Cavaliers of England, whom for a 
time they displaced. In a passage we have quoted from Sargent's " Life of 
Andre," the author says : " Most of the landed gentry of New York espoused 
the royal cause." And it was natural that it should be so, for most of them 
had -for generations held office under the Crown. Their habits of life, too, 
had trained them to tastes which had no sympathy with the levelling doctrines 
inaugurated by the new movement. They accordingly rallied around the 
King's standard, and when it went down they went down with it, and in many 
cases their names were blotted out of the land. 

We once read in an old number of Blackwood's Magazine some discussion 
about the impolitic course pursued by England toward her colonies. The 
remarks about the manner in which she lost her American colonies were pecu- 
liarly judicious. The writer says the Government should have formed an 
aristocracy in America, by giving titles, and thus gathering the great landed 
proprietors about the throne by new ties. These extensive landholders, previ- 
ous to the Revolution, were as able to keep up the dignity of a title as were 
the English nobility of that day ; and the effect which would have been pro- 
duced, in the strengthening of their loyalty, is obvious. Had the head of the 
Livingston family been created Earl of Clermont and that of the Laurences 
been made Lord Newtown, would they have taken the side of the Revolution- 
ists? We trow not. Instead of this, these powerful landed families were neg- 
lected, until some of them became embittered against the Government. No 
title, as a mark of royal favor, was given to a single American, except a baro- 
netcy to Sir William Johnson.* 

* The writer, usually so accurate, is mistaken in this. William Peppcrell was also cre- 
ated a baronet for his part in the capture of Louisburg, in the same manner as Johnson was 
made one for his defeat of Dieskau, at the battle of Lake George, 1755.— Author. 



A P P E N DI X X V I . 103 

Of the few landed families wlio took the popular side, perhaps the Living- 
stons and Schuylers occupied the leading position. The former had not been 
in favor with the Government, but were the political antagonists of the De 
Lanceys, by whom they were excluded from office. They therefore welcomed 
the new order of things. 

Religion, in those days, had a good deal to do with the state of parties. As 
far back as 1745, the De Lanceys were the leaders of the Church of England 
party, and the Livingstons of the Dissenters. Religious bitterness was added, 
therefore, to that which was political. " In 1769, (says Stone, in his Life of 
Sir William Johnson., " the contest was between the Church party and the Dis- 
senters, the former being led by the De Lanceys, and the latter by the Living- 
stons. The Church, having the support of the mercantile and masonic inter- 
ests, was triumphant ; and John Cruger, James De Lancey, Jacob Walton, and 
James Jauncey, were elected by the city." 

To the popular side, also, went the Jays, the Laurences, a portion of the Van 
Cortlandts who were divided, a part of the Morris family, which was also divided 
(while Lewis Morris was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, 
his brother, Staats Morris, was a general in the British army, and married the 
Dowager Duchess of Gordon), the Beekmans, and some few others. The 
" Patroon " — Mr. Van Rensselaer-^-was fortunately a minor, and therefore, not 
being obliged to take either side, saved his manor. Many of the prominent 
leaders were from new families, made by the Revolution. An upturning of 
this kind is the time for new men. Peculiar circumstances brought some for- 
ward who otherwise w r ould have had no avenue for action opened before them. 
Alexander Hamilton, for example, had just arrived in New York, a young man 
from the West Indies, when the popular outbreak gave him, at a public meet- 
ing, an opportunity of exhibiting his peculiar talents. 

The history of a single family will show the course of events. Probably 
the most powerful family in the State, before the Revolution, was that of the 
De Lanceys. Descended from the ancien noblesse of France, and holping large 
possessions, they had exerted a greater influence in the colony than any other 
family. James De Lancey administered the government of the colony for many 
years, till his death, in 1760. Most of the younger members of the family were 
in the British army previous to the Revolution. When that convulsion took 
place, they, of course, remained loyal, and became leaders on that side. Oliver 
De Lancey was a brigadier-geeneral, and organized the celebrated corps styled 
" De Lancey's Battalion." His fine mansion at Bloomingdale was burned, in 
consequence of his adherence to the royal cause. They forfeited their broad 
lands, and their names appeared no more in the future history of the State. 
Some fled to England, where they held high offices, and their tombs are now 
to be seen in the choir of Beverley Cathedral. Sir William De Lancey died at 
Waterloo, on the staff of the Duke of Wellington. Just two months previous, 
he had been married to a daughter of Sir Benjamin Hall ; and his friend, Sir 
Walter Scott thus alludes to him in his ode, The Field of Waterloo : 

" De Lancey changed Love's bridal wreath 
For laurels from the hand of death.'' 

The son of General De Lancey, Oliver De Lancey, Jr., who succeeded 
Andre as Adjutant-General of the British army in America, rose through the 



104 



APPENDIX XVI 



gra.de of Lieutenant-General to that of General, and died, at the beginning of 
this century, nearly at the head of the English army-list. 

In In 1847 the late Bishop of Western New York (William Heathcote De 
Lancey) told the writer a curious story of his recovery of some of their old 
family papers. In the spring of that year, being in New York, a package was 
handed to the servant at the door by an old gentleman, on opening which the 
Bishop found an anonymous letter directed to him. The writer stated that, 
being in England between thirty and forty years before, he found some papers 
relating to the De Lancey family among some waste paper iu the house where 
he was staying ; that he had preserved them, and, seeing by the newspapers 
that the Bishop was in the city, he now inclosed them to him. These the 
Bishop found to be : 1st, the commission of James De Lancey as Lieutenant- 
Governor of the colony ; 2d, his commission as Chief-Justice of the colony ; 3d, 
the freedom of the city of New York, voted to one of the family in 1730 ; 4th, 
a map of the lands owned by them in West Chester County and on New York 
island, prepared by the Bishop's grandfather. He advertised in the New 
York papers, requesting an interview with his unknown correspondent, but 
there was no response, and he heard no more from him. 

Some branches of this family remained in New York, and we cannot point 
to a more striking evidence of the change wrought by the Revolution, than 
the fact that, since that event, the name of De Lancey, once so prominent, is 
never found in the records of the Government. It is in the Church only that 
it has acquired eminence, in the person of the former distinguished Bishop of 
Western New York. 

This is the kind of story which might be told of many other loyalist 
families. Ruined by confiscations, they faded out of sight, and, being excluded 
from political office, they were forgotten, and their very names would sound 
strange in the ears of the present generation of New Yorkers. Many years 
ago, in the old country-house of a relative, the writer amused some days of a 
summer vacation by bringing down from the dust of a garret, where they had 
reposed for two generations, the letters of one of these refugees, who, at the 
beginning of the Revolution, was obliged to seek safety on board a British 
ship-of-war off New York harbor (from whence he writes his farewell, com- 
mending his wife and children to the care of the family), and then made his 
home in England, until, as he hoped, " these calamities be overpast." It was 
sad to read his speculations, as night after night he attended the debates in 
Parliament and watched the progress of the war, and, to the last, confidently 
trusted in the success of the royal arms, which alone could replace him in the 
position from which he had been driven into exile. When these hopes were 
ultimately crushed, a high appointment was offered him by Government, but 
he preferred to return to his own land to share the straitened circumstances of 
his family, and be buried with his fathers. 

The withdrawal of so many of the gentry from the country, and the worldly 
ruin of so many more, was necessarily detrimental to its social refinement. It 
was taking away the high-toned dignity of the landed proprietors, and substi- 
tuting in its place the restless aspirations of men who had to make their 
fortunes Mid position, and get forward in life. Society lost, therefore, much of 
its ease and gracefulness. Mrs. Grant, to whose work we have already alluded, 
who in her youth had seen New York society as far back as 1760, and lived to 



A P P E N D I X X V I. 105 

know what it was after the peace, thus speaks of the change : " Mildness of 
manners, refinement of mind, and all the softer virtues that spring up in the 
cultivated paths of social life, nurtured by generous affections, were undoubtedly 
to be found in the unhappy loyalists. . . . Certainly, however necessary 
the ruling powers might find it to carry their system of exile into execution, it 
has occasioned to the country an irreparable privation. What the loss of the 
Huguenots was to commerce and manufactures in France, that of the loyalists 
was to religion, literature, and amenity in America. The silken threads were 
drawn out of the mixed web of society, which has ever since been comparatively 
coarse and homely." * 

This is somewhat of an exaggeration. The tone of society was, indeed, 
impaired, but not lost. There were still enough of the old families remaining 
to give it dignity, at least for another generation. The community could not 
suddenly become democratic, or throw off all its old associations and habits of 
reverence. As a writer on that day says, people were " habituated to take off 
their hats to gentlemen who were got up regardless of expense, and who rode 
about in chariots drawn by four horses." It took a long while for the com- 
munity to learn to act on the maxim that "all men are created equal." Not, 
indeed, until those were swept away who had lived in the days of the Revolution, 
did this downward tendency become very evident. Simultaneously, too, with 
their departure came a set of the nouveaux riches, which the growing facilities 
of New York for making commercial fortunes brought forward, and thus by 
degrees, was ushered in — the ajre of gaudy wealth. 

The final blow, indeed, to this stately old society was given by the French 
Revolution. We know how every thing dignified in society was then swept 
away in the wild fury of democracy, but the present generation cannot conceive 
of the intense feeling which that event produced in our own country. France 
had been our old ally, England our old foe. We must side with the former in 
her struggles against tyranny. It became a political test. The Republicans 
adopted it, and insensibly there seemed to grow up the idea that refinement and 
courtesy in life were at variance with the true party-spirit. In this way demo- 
cratic rudeness crept into social life, and took the place of the aristocratic ele- 
ment of former days. Gradually it went down into the lower strata of society, 
till all that reverence which once characterized it was gone. 

The manners of an individual at last became an evidence of his political 
views. Goodrich, in his " Recollections," speaking on this very point, gives an 
ammusing instance of it. A clergyman in Connecticut, who was noted for his 
wit, riding along one summer day, came to a brook, where lie paused to let his 
horse drink. Just then a stranger rode into the stream from the opposite 
direction, and, as his horse began to drink also, the two men were brought face 
to face. 

"How are you, priest?" said the stranger 

" How are you. democrat 1 " inquired the parson. 

" How do you know I am a democrat? " said one. 

" How do you know I am a priest ? " said the other. 

" I know you to be a priest by your dress," said the stranger 

" And I know you to be a democrat by your address," said the parson. 

* "American Lady," p. 330. 



1Q G APPENDIX XVI. 

Even the dress was made the exponent of party views, as much as it had 
been by the Cavaliers and Puritans of England. As republican principles 
gained ground, large wigs and powder, cocked hats, breeches arid shoe-buckles, 
were replaced by short hair, pantaloons, and shoe-strings. It is said that the 
Marquis de Breze, master of ceremonies at Versailles, nearly died of fright at 
the first pair of shoes, divested of buckles, which he saw on the feet of a Revo- 
lutionary minister ascending the stairs to a royal levee. He rushed over to 
Dumouriez, then Minister of War. " He is actually entering," exclaimed the 
Marquis, " with ribbons in his shoes!" Demouriez, himself one of the incen- 
diaries of the Revolution, solemnly said, " Tout est finiV — " The game is up; 
the monarchy is gone." And so it was. This was only one of the signs of the 
times. Buckles and kings were extinguished together. 

Such being the feeling of the sans culottes in France, the favorers of Jaco- 
binism in this country were not slow to imitate them. Jefferson eschewed 
breeches and wore pantaloons. He adopted leather strings in his shoes instead 
of buckles, and his admirers trumpeted it as a proof of democratic simplicity. 
Washington rode to the capital in a carriage drawn by four cream-colored 
horses, with servants in livery. All this his successor gave up, and even abol- 
ished the President's levees, the latter of which were afterward restored by 
Mrs. Madison. Thus the dress, which had for generations been the sign and 
symbol of a gentleman, gradually waned away, till society reached that charm- 
ing state of equality in which it became impossible, by any outward costume, 
to distinguish masters from servants. John Jay says, in one of his letters, that 
with small clothes and buckles the high tone of society departed. 

In the writer's early day this system of the past was just going out. Wigs 
and powder and queues, breeches, and buckles, still lingered among the older 
gentlemen — vestiges of an age which was vanishing away. But the high-toned 
feeling of the last century was still in the ascendant, and had not yet succumbed 
to the worship of mammon which characterizes this age. There was still in 
New York a reverence for the colonial familes, and the prominent political men 
— like Duane, Clinton, Colden, Radcliff, Hoffman, and Livingston— were gen- 
erally gentlemen both by birth and social standing. The time had not yet 
come when this was to be an objection to an individual in a political career. 
The leaders were men whose names were historical in the State, and they influ- 
enced society. The old families stiil formed an association among themselves, 
and intermarried one generation after another. Society was, therefore, very 
restricted. The writer remembers, in his childhood, when he went out witn 
his father for his afternoon drive, he knew every carriage they met on the 
avenues. 

The gentlemen of that day knew each other well, for they had grown up 
together, and their associations in the past were the same. Yet, what friend- 
ships for after-life did these associations form ! How different this from the 
intimacy between Mr. Smith and Mr. Thompson, when they know nothing of 
each other's antecedents, have no subjects in common but the money-market, 
and never heard of each other until the last year, when some lucky speculation 
in stocks raised them from their " low estate," and enabled them to purchase 
houses " up-town," and set up their carriages. 

There was, in that day, none of the show and glitter of modern times ; but 
there was, with many of these families, particularly with those who had 



APPENDIX XVI. 107 

retained their landed estates, and were still living in their old family-homes, 
an elegance which has never been rivaled in other parts of the country. In 
1 lis early days, the writer has been much at the South ; has stayed at Mount 
Vernon when it was yet held by the Washingtons ; with Lord Fairfax's family 
at Ashgrove and Vancluse ; with the Lees in Virginia ; and with the aristocratic 
planters of South Carolina; but he has never elsewhere seen such elegance of 
living as was formerly exhibited by the old families of New York. 

Gentlemen then were great diners-out. Their associations naturally led to 
this kind of intimacy, when almost the same set constantly met together. Giv- 
ing dinners was then a science, and a gentleman took as much pride in the 
excellence of his wine-cellar as he did in his equipage or his library. This had 
its evils, it is true, and led to long sittings over the table, and an excess of con- 
viviality which modern customs have fortunately corrected. 

There was a punctiliousness, too, in their intercourse, even among the most 
intimate, which formed a strange contrast to the familiarity of modern society. 
Gentlemen were guarded in what they said to each other, for those were duel- 
ing-days, and a hasty speech had to be atoned for at Hoboken. Stories are still 
handed down of disputes at the dinner-table which led to hostile meetings, but 
which, in our day, would not have been remembered next morning. In an obit- 
uary sketch, one of this set published at his death, twenty-five years ago, when 
speaking of the high tone which then characterized society, the writer said : 
" Perhaps the liability, which then existed, of being held personally answera- 
ble for their words, false as the principle may have been, produced a courtesy 
not known in these days." 

One thing is certain — that there was a high tone prevailing at that time, 
which is now nowhere seen. The community then looked up to the public 
men with a degree of reverence which has never been felt for those who suc- 
ceeded them. They were the last of a race which does not now exist. With 
them died the stateliness of colonial times. Wealth came in and created a social 
distinction which took the place of family, and thus society became vulgarized. 

Gulian C. Verplanck was, perhaps, the last prominent member of the gen- 
eration which has gone. Where can we point to any one of those now living-, 
like him, surrounded by the elevating associations of the past, distinguished 
in public life, and a ripe scholar in literature and theology? The old historical 
names of Jay and Duer and Hoffman, and a few more of colonial times, are still 
upheld among us by their sons, who are showing, in the third generation, the 
high talents of those who had gone before them ; " but what are they among 
so many !" 

" Rari nantes in gurgite vasto." 

The influences of the past are fast vanishing away, and our children will 
look only to the shadowy future. The very rule by which we estimate indi- 
viduals has been entirely altered. The inquiry once was, " Who is he ?" Men 
now ask the question, "How much is he worth?" Have we gained by the 
change ? 

Is it strange that the writer answers in himself that description in Horace — 

" Laudator acti temporis, me puero ?" 

As years gather round him, and the shadows deepen in his path, he instinc- 
tively turns more and more from the "living Present" to commune with the 



108 APPENDIX XVI. 

" dead Past." Many, however, to whom he has referred in these pages, will 
be to most of his readers only names, while to him they are realities — living 
and breathing men ; and, as he thinks of them, he believes there is no delusion 
in the conviction that, for eloquence and refinement, for all the graces which 
elevate and ennoble life, they have left no successors. The outward pressure is 
now too democratic. Most of the prominent men, also, of the present day, want 
the associations of the past. 

As Edward IV. stood on the tower of Warwick Castle, and saw marching 
through the park below him the mighty host of retainers who, at the summons 
of the great Earl of Warwick, had gathered round him, and then thought how 
powerless, in comparison, were the new nobles with whom he had attempted 
to surround his throne, he is said to have muttered to himself, " After all, you 
cannot make a great baron out of a new lord !" And so we would say, " You 
cannot make out of the new millionaire what was exhibited by the gentlmen 
of our old colonial families !" 

Commerce, indeed is fast taking the place of the true old chivalry with all 
its high associations. It is impossible, in this country, for St. Germain to hold 
its own against the Bourse. Money-getting is the great object of life in this 
practical age ; and, every month, the words which Halleck wrote so many years 
ago are becoming more true : 

" These are notTomantic times 
So beautiful in Spenser's rhymes. 

So dazzling to the dreaming boy; 
Ours are the days of fact, not fabie, 
Of Knights, but not of the Round Table, 

Of Baillie Jarvis, not Rob Roy. 
And noble name and cultured land, 
Palace and park, and vassal band, 
Are power'ess to notes of hand 

Of Rothschild or the Barings." 



APPENDIX XVII. 



VISIT OF GENERAL JACKSON TO THE CITY 
AS A GUEST OF TAMMANY, IN 1819 * 

BY GENERAL PROSPER M. WETMORE. 



0NE incident in the history of Tammany caused \^*^?f°*£ 
the time of its occurrence, and has prohahly not been forgotten .by all of hose 

In the early spring of 1819, an unexpected event awakened the en husmsm 

bad no" at . ,« time become a watchword of party, although <*»«■"£ 

Sive the Importance of securing so valuable an adherent, and a share of 
the nrestige which attached to the person of a victorious general 

S3 was received with great eclat by the municipal authorities, and 
„,tW llerved onors at tbehands of the people. A military review was 
with well a ?~* , freedom of the city in a gold box, in the 

ST He rate™ Escorted by a regiment of cavalry to visit the vener- 
1 1 w rL.i„coished General Ebenezer Stevens, then living, at an adduced 
^1 ""ng iSand, near Hell Gate. Stevens had commanded the American 



* Keferred to on page 374. 
97 



110 APPENDIX XVII.. 

artillery at "the surrender of Burgoyne, at Saratoga, and Jackson bad defeated 
Packenham and a greatly superior force at New Orleans. More than half a 
century had elapsed between the two great events, and the visit of the young 
and popular general was a graceful compliment paid to the warrior of another 

age. 

During the stay of the General in the city, he accepted an invitation to dine 
at Tammany Hall. He was received with the greatest cordiality by the domi- 
nant party, who expected great results from so auspicious an event. The enter- 
tainment was superb, as the phrase was understood in that primitive day, when 
Stetson was not, and Delmonico undreamed of. Alas! how precarious are all 
human expectations ! An explosion followed the opening of the intellectual 
exercises, which speedily put an end to the harmonious hilarity of the occasion. 
The circumstance which led to this disastrous result cannot be better stated 
than in the language of one of Halleck's notes to an allusion in The Croaker : 

" A grand dinner was given to General Jackson, at Tammany Hall, on the 
23d of February, 1819, in honor of his visit to this city. The hall was crowded, 
and the toast, ' To General Jackson ; so long as the Mississippi rolls its waters 
to the ocean, so long may his great name and glorious deeds be remembered,' 
was replied to by the General, who proposed, ' De Witt Clinton, Governor of 
the great and patriotic State of New York,' to the utter confusion of the Buck- 
tails, who looked upon Clinton as their bitterest foe. General Jackson, per- 
fectly independent of all parties, had conceived a great admiration for Mr. 
Clinton, although he was at that time personally unacquainted with him, and 
hence the toast. The greatest confusion ensued, amid which the General left 
the room." 

The subject was just fitted to call out the brilliant wits of the day. Drake, 
in the first number of The Croaker, has the following lines 
" I'm sick of General Jackson's toast 
Canals are naught to me; 
Nor do I care who rules the roast, 
Clinton or John Targce." 

Halleck took his full share of the fun. One of his earliest contributions to 
the series of The Croaker, entitled, " The Freedom of the City in a Gold Box 
to a Great General," is in his happiest vein. One stanza from another of his 
productions on the same topic must suffice. It is entitled, " The Secret Mine 
Sprung at a Late Supper:" 

" The songs were good, for Mead and Hawkins sung 'em, 

The wine went round, 'twas laughter all and joke. 

When crack 1 the General sprung a mine among 'em, 

And beat a safe retreat amid the smoke. 
As fall the sticks of rockets when we fire 'em. 

So fell the Bucktails at that toast accurst, 
Looking like Koran. Dathan, and Abirnm, 
When the firm earth beneath their footsteps burst.'' 

It may well be supposed that such an opening for jocose allusion was not 
neglected, and the subject continued to be a sore oue to the Bucktails for many 
a month after the public at large had forgotten the occurrence. Jackson's 
unpremeditated piece of strategy was not without its effect upon the future 
policy of parties ; for in after years the Clintonians became the most earnest 
and influential members of the Jackson party. 



INDEX . 



Abolitionist Riot, 460. 

Academy of Design, 588, 589, 609. 

of Music, 511. 

Act of Navigation closes ports in New 
England, Maryland, and Vir- 
ginia, 58. 

Act of Parliament empowering Govern- 
ment Officials to receive their 
salaries independent of the peo- 
ple, boldly denounced, 238. 

Adams, John, first Vice-President of the 
United States, 194, 293, 303. 

John Quincy, 232. 

Samuel, his circular letter on tax- 
ation, 216. 

Adoption of the Federal Constitution, 
procession in favor of, 282. 

^Etna Insurance Company, 476. 

Africa, 147. 

African Chapel, 463. 

African Slaves, 25. 

AlbaDv City, 14, 16, 44, 45, 109, 110, 
126, 148, 641. 

City, Six Nations in Council at, 

130. 

County of, 114, 211. 

County of, divided into three por- 
tions, 238. 

Albion, a ship, 156. 

Alderton's Building, 90. 

Alexander, James, a prominent lawyer of 
New York, 134. 

Alexis, Russian Duke, reception of, 639. 

Alleged Robbery of Vouchers from Comp- 
troller's Office, 627. 

Allegiance, Oath of, Traders compelled 
to reside within city limits, and 
take, 52. 

Allerton, Isaac, one of the "May Flower" 
emigrants, 90. 

Alliance with France, 288. 

Almshouses, 336. 

Ambuscade, a ship, 321. 

America, 14, 15. 



America, Bank of, 603. 

Bank of North, 603. 



American Academy of Fine Arts found- 
ed under Charter, 587. 

Academy of Fine Arts, Trum- 
bull's connection with, 587. 

Army of 15,000 men, encamped at 

Brooklyn, 247. 

Civilization, 657. 

Coast, 16. 

— Lawyers, eminent, 341. 

Press, The, its History and Prog- 
ress, 274-280. 

Republic, new, a stranger's ex- 
perience in the, 338. 

Americans retreat across East River, to 
New York, 247. 

Ames, Fisher, 292. 

Amherst, General, 184, 443. 

General, visit to New York, 184. 



Amsterdam, 10, 14, 56, 63, 85. 

Chamber, 18, 35, 43, 63. 

Chamber, proclamation relating 

to settlement in and trade with 
New Netherland, 35. 

Directors, 59, 148. 

Fort, 21, 25, 26, 27, 36, 46, 49, 62. 

Fort, surrender of, 62 note. 

Port, changed to Fort James, 62. 

Harbor of, 10. 

New 22, 24, 26, 28, 29, 34, 35, 37, 

39, 40, 50, 51, 52. 

New, and Lon? Island Ferry, 40. 

New, Population of, 53, 55, 59, 148. 

New, Survey and Map made, 58. 

New, Col. Nicholls anchors be- 
fore, 61. 

New, surrendered to the British, 

61. 

New, henceforth known as New 

York, 62. 

New, Literature of, 77. 

New, Sunday in, 77. 

New, Mode of Worship in, 78. 



114 



INDEX. 



Ancient and Modern New York, com- 
parison between, 639-658. 

Andre", Major, 154, 266. 

Andros, Sir Edmund, 68, 106, 109, 113. 

Sir Edmund, appointed Governor, 

by Duke of York, 68, 106. 

Anglo-American manners and customs, 
337-340. 

Anglo-Dutch War carried on by the Na- 
vies of the two powers, 66. 

Ann Street, 90. 

Anne, Queen, 124, 138, 155, 647. 

Annual grants of supplies only, insisted 
upon by the Assembly, 143. 

Anonymous communications to Govern- 
ment by Sons of Liberty, 204. 

Appeal to Citizens on the Tammany 
Frauds question, 624-627. 

Appleton & Co., 604. 

Apple-raising, 69. 

Aqueduct, Croton, at Sing Sing, 500, 501. 

Arcade in Maiden Lane, 419. 

Archangel, 14. 

Architecture of New York City, 601. 

Arding, Rev. Charles, 319. 

Armuyden, in Zealand, 95. 

Arnold, Benedict, 154. 

Arrival of two British regiments at Bos- 
ton, 216. 

Arsenal, State, 457. 

Asia, a ship, 245. 

A spin wall, William, 41. 

William H., 376. 

Assembly, (Colonial) the people petition 
for a representative, and are re- 
fused, 106. 
the first, meets in 1683, 113, 114. 

the, provides for building a 

church, 121. 

the, refuses to grant supplies and 

is dissolved, 143. 

functions of the, annulled by the 

British Parliament, 213. 

elected in 1768, is convened, 215. 

remonstrates with Gov. Moore, 2 IT. 

dissolution of the, in 1769, 218. 

meets ; John Cruger speaker, 221. 

petitions the Crown for redress 

of grievances, 245. 

12:5, 129, 136-146, 156-165, 172, 

173, 174, 177, 179, 181, 183. 190, 
191, 194, 190, 198, 202, 203-241. 

Astor House, 232, 308. 

Astor, John Jacob, 38. 

John Jacob, Anecdote of, 413. 

Astor Library, 649. 

Astor Place Opera House, 521, 522. 

Place Riot, 520. 

Assurance Companies, 603. 

Asylum for the Insane, seeking suitable 
site for, 233. 



Asylum for the Insane, Review of its sub- 
sequent career, 233. 
Atlantic Cable Celebration, 284. 

Garden, 30, note. 

and Pacific Oceans, 17. 



Attucks, a mulatto, 228. 
Auchmuty, Rev. Samuel, 167, 220. 
Auction Hotel, 483. 

Badlam's Battery, 246. 
Baker, Gardiner, 329. 

Sir William, 207. 



Baldock, Captain R., 394. 

Ball in honor of the opening of the Erie 

Canal, 410. 
in honor of the Queen's Birthday, 

261. 
Washington Inauguration, 309. 



Baltimore, 369, 388. 

Bancroft, George, 54, 161, 200, 248, 637. 

George, delivers an oration upon 

President Lincoln, 657. 
Bank Street, 378. 
Bank of Commerce, 603. 

of the Commonwealth, 603. 

of the Republic, 603. 

— of America, 603. 

of New York, 603. 

Broadway, 603. 

of North America, 603. 

Union, 603. 



Banks suspend payment, 536. 
Bauman, Colonel, 236, 299, 305. 
Banyar, Goldsbrow, 201, 205. 
Barclay, Rev. Mr., 166, 167. 

Street, 251. 

— Street Ferry, 420. 

Barlow, General, 645. 

Barnard, Judge, 633. 

Barnum's Museum, 511. 

Barre, M. de La, Governor, 111. 

Barren Island (Beeren Eylant), 98. 

Bartlett, an artist, 636. 

Batterson, James G., designs the Worth 

Monument, 510. 
Battery, The, 19, 25, 30, 49, 78, 87, 

396, 403, 475, 499, 613, 657. 
— Fort, The dilapidated condition of, 

47. 
Fort, <?uns removed from, by the 

Liberty Boys, 245. 
Fort, required by Government, 

47. 

Fort, dismantled, 201. 

Battle, first on record between English 

and Dutch trading vessels near 

Fort Amsterdam, 27. 
of Bunker Hill, 106, 244. 



of Golden Hill, New York, 228. 

of Long Island, 247. 

Baxter, George, 39. 



INDEX. 



115 



Baxter Street, 529. 

Bayard, Nicholas, 284, 339. 

Bayard's Hickory Grove, 339. 

Spring, 339. 

Beaver Street, 30, 92, 115, 251, 419, 481, 
509, 510. 

Becker's Tavern, 336. 

Bedloe's Island, 139. 

Beekman, Adrian, killed in a riot, 272, 
note. 

— Colonel, 170. 

J. W., quotation from his ad- 
dress on behalf of the New- 
York Hospital, 234, 235. 

House, 271, 272, note. 

Mrs., 272. 

Slip, 246, 356. 

Street, 165, 184, 323, 331, 590. 

Swamp, 70, 91, note, 167. 

William, 272, note. 

William, Schepen of New Am- 
sterdam, 148. 

Beelen Island, 45. 

Belgium, 19. 

Bell, Old Jail, 367, 510. 

Bellamont, Earl of, Governor of New 
York, Massachusetts, and New 
Hampshire, 121, 131. 

Belvidere Club, 340. 

Benckes, Admiral, 67. 

Bend, Rev. J. G., 168. 

Benson, Judge, 104, 453. 

Benton, Hon. Nathaniel, gives Canal 
Statistics, 411. 

Benson, Governor, 443. 

Berkeley, Sir William, Governor of Vir- 
ginia, 106. 

Bermuda, Trade with, 30, 167. 

Bernard, Governor of Massachusetts, 
192. 

Betste (bedstead), 75. 

Bevers Paatje (Beaver Lane 1 , 62. 

Bible, discussion on the admission of the, 
without comment, into the N. Y. 
Public Schools, 508, 509. 
House, 132, 649, 

Bierstadt, an artist, 637. 

" Big Ditch," The, 410. 

Bills of Credit, or Paper Currency, issue 
of objected to by Assembly, 161. 

Billy the Fiddler, 423. 

Blackwell's Island, 83. 

Blauvelt, Captain, 43. 

Blazing Star Inn, stages stop at, 186, 
187. 

Bleecker, Anthony, 318, 452. 

Street, 643. 

Street House, 468. 

Block, Adrien, 14, 15. 

Bloomingdale Road, 503, 505, 597. 

Board of Education, 507. 



Boes, Captain, 67. 

Bogardus, Domine Everardus, second 

Clergyman in New Netherland, 

24, 32, 48. 
Rev. W., 32, 57. 



Bolton's Tavern (Sam Francis's), 231, 

298. 
Booth, Mary L., 182, 219. 
Booth's Theatre, 607, 609. 
Boston, 30, 41, 122, 125, 199, 214, 216, 223, 

227, 239, 243, 244, 246, 274, 387. 
old post road, 91, 93. 



Bouck, Mr., 408. 

Boudinot, Elias, 292. 

Boulevard, The New, 597. 

Bowerie Farm, 93. 

Bowerie Village, 103. 

Bowery, 12, 93, 403, 529. 

Bowling Green, 19, 27, 30, 37, 78, 92, 115, 
125, 200, 246, 289, 318. 

Bradford, Governor William, of New 
Plymouth, 133. 

Bradford's Gazette, 274. 

Bradstreet & Son, 488. 

Brady, Rev. John, 170. 

Brant, Joseph (Thayendanegea), visits 
New York as the guest of Miss 
Burr, 415, 416. 

Brazil, 43, 46, 63, 103. 

Bread Riots, 536. 

Breastworks erected, 246. 

Breukelen, 88, 98. 

Breweries, Brick-kilns, and other Manu- 
factories in New Netherland, 
59. 

Brick Church, Old, 366, 590. 

Bridewell, Old, 336. 

The, 336, 497. 

Bridge Street i Brugh Straat), 30, 88, 
92, 125. 

British Army land on Long Island, at 
Gravesend, 247. 

Fleet occupy the North and East 

Rivers, 247. 

House of Commons refuse to re- 
ceive representatives of New 
York Assembly, 222. 

Museum, 87. 

Officers and their wives indulg- 
ing in gayety and frivolity, 
whilst American citizens are 
laiiguishiug in prison, 256. 

Broad Street, 13, 24, 30, 87, 88, 89, 92, 
115, 124,231,246,251. 300.31)3, 
318, 321, 336, 421, 477, 480, 481, 
482, 509, 510. 

Broadwav. 13. 111. 67. 89, 1)0, 02. !).-,. 102. 
"132, L52, 232, 321,335,340,403, 
421, 426, 462, 474, 499, 509, 
603. 

Bank, 603. 



116 



INDEX. 



Broadway, Past and Present, 605. 

No. 1, Head-quarters of British 

Commanders during Revolu- 
tionary War, 152, 154. 

its true history, 270. 

East, 529. 

Brodhead, J. R., 54. 

Brooklyn, 474. 

Ferry, 93, 356. 

Heights, 246. 

Navy Yard, 480, 482. 

Brooks, Erastus, 352. 

Broome, John, 287, 318, 322, 336. 

Broome Street, 403. 

Brown, George W., Auction Hotel of, 483. 

Major, 262, 263. 

Brown, a sculptor, 637. 

Brunswick Troops, 256. 

Bryant, William Cullen, 637, 657. 

Buck, Gordon, 234. 

Buffalo, 186, 390. 

Buildings, Improvements in Streets and, 
in New York, 37. 

average height of, in 1677, 576. 

Bullock Street, 284. 

Bunker, Captain E. S., 393. 

Bunker Hill, Battle of, 106, 244. 

Burgher government established in Man- 
hattan, 53. 

Burgomasters, Salaries of, 40. 

Burgoyne, General, 256. 

Burke, Edmund, 246. 

Burling Slip, 226, 246. 

Burlington, N. J., Stages run to, 186. 

Burnet, Gov. William, succeeds Gov. 
Hunter, as Governor of New 
York, 126, 127. 

Gov. William, anecdotes of, 129, 

130. 

resigns Governorship of New 

York, and accepts that of New 
Hampshire and Massachusetts, 
129. 

Burnet's policy, beneficial effects of, 128. 

Burning of the Government House, 257. 

Burns' Coffee-house, 207, 290. 

Burr, Aaron, 341, 342, 345, 415, 443. 

obtains the acquittal of Levy 

Weeks charged with the mur- 
der of Miss Sands, 343. 

Burr, Theodosia, entertains Brant, 415. 

Burroughs, Mr., 126. 

Bushwick, or Boswyck, 148. 

Bute, Lord, 197, 200. 

Butman, Jeremiah, 372. 

Byron, Lord, 412. 

Cabot, 24. 

Cadaraqui, Fort at, 109, 112. 
" Cadmus," the ship in which Lafayette 
visited America, 379, 383. 



Cadwallader, Col., defends Harlem Plains, 
250. 

Caen, Normandy, 152. 

Caesar, the Nigger, 84, 85. 

Caffniere, Admiral, 113. 

Calvin, 137. 

Calvinists, 22. 

Cambridge University, 152. 

Canada, 15, 16, 21. 

Indians invade, 112. 

Canal Street, 13, 232, 335, 403. 

Street, extension, 529. 

, Erie, The, projected by Clinton^ 

348. 

, Erie, The, rejoicings at its comple- 
tion, 379, 389-401. 

Carleton, General, and Lieutenant-Gover- 
nor Sir Guy Carleton, 154, 
214. 

Caribbean Islands, 53. 

Carroll, Mr., 166. 

Carroll of Carrollton, 489. 

Carter, Herman G., 488. 

Carteret, Philip, Governor of New Jer- 
sey, 103, note. 

Castle Garden, 384, 
William, 384. 



Catherine Slip. 356. 

Street, 91, 465. 

Catholics, 22. 
Catskill, 352. 
Caughnawaga, the town of the Caughna- 

wagas or Praying Indians, 127. 
Cayenguinago, 120. 
Cayugas, 108. 
Cedar Street, 422, 603. 
Celestial Empire, 14. 
Central Park, 501, 503, 529. 

— Park Commission, 614. 

Park, History and Description of, 

529-531. 
Park, Prof. S. F. B. Morse's Statue 

in, 639. ^ 

Park, Receiving Reservoir, 506. 

Centre Street, 246, 337, 457, 463, 465, 

529. 
Century Club, 359. 
Chamber of Commerce, 624. 
Chambers, John, 135, 167, 194. 

Street, 132, 529. 

Chambly, Fort, 374. 

Champlain, Lake, 132, 593. 

Chancellor Livingston, a steam vessel, 

383, 396. 
Charity School, 252. 
Charles, Robert, Colonial Agent, 221. 
Charles I., 27, 146. 
Charleston, S. C, 247. 
Charlton Street, 13, 339. 
Charlotte County, 238. 
Charter, Dongan's, 116. 



INDEX. 



117 



Charter of Liberties, The, 114. 

— of Columb a (King's) College, op- 
position of citizens to its being 
granted, 177-179. 

first, of New Netherland, 40. 

of Privileges and Exemptions, 

21. 

Montgomery's, 647. 

of New York City. The old one 

annulled, 613. 

- ■ of New York City. The new one 

promulgated and passed, 614. 

of New York City — its provisions 

as compared with the old, 614, 
note. 

of New York City — its special 

peculiarities, 615. 
of New York City — : the various 

Charters and their provisions, 

615. 
Chatham, Earl of, 200. 

Insurance Company, 476. 

— Square, 465. 

Street, 91, 93, 165, 232, 323, 337, 

467. 
Street, " Tea "Water Pump" in, 

500, 573. 
Chauncey Vibbard, a steamboat, 352, note, 

353. 
Cheatham, James, 488. 
Cherry Street, 13, 472. 
Cheshire, 156. 

Chicago, Great Fire in, 616-618. 
Great Eire in, New York City 

aids sufferers by, 616. 
China, 187. 

Choate, Joseph H., 621. 
Christ-Kinkle Day, 69-71. 
Christiaensen, Hendrick, 14, 15, 16. 
Christian Association, Young Men's, 638. 
Church, an artist, 637. 
Churches and Ministers in New York 

City, 641, 642. 
Church Street, extension from Fulton to 

Morris, 599, 600. 
Citizens refuse to support the Troops, 

213. 
consternation of, at the lavages of 

the Yellow Fever, 332. 
City, The, divided into six Wards, 

115. 

Council, 57. 

Gale, 89. 

Boundary established, 131. 

Hall, or Stadt-Huys, 89. 

Hall, 77, 124, 301, 336, 345, 375, 

385, 403, 421, 462, 465, 480, 

483. 

— Hall Slip, 186. 

Hall Park, 91, 224, 498. 

— Hall, present, buUt, 345. 



City Hall, public meeting of Citizens 
called at, for fire of 1835, 483- 
486. 

Hotel, The, 211, 308, note, 375, 

385, 404, 483. 

Seal, New, 116. 

Wall, The, 92. 



Clarence, Duke of, saved from drowning 

by Gulian Verplanck, 271. 
Claremont, 504. 
Clarendon, Edward Hyde, Earl of, Lord 

Chancellor of England, 138. 
Clark, McDonald, the Mad Poet, 490. 
- William, 135. 

Willis Gaylord, 489. 



Clarke, George, Secretary of Colony, 138. 
George, appointed Lieut.-Gov., 

138, 142. 
George, Lieut.-Gov , supported in 

his acts by the popular voice, 

138. 
— George, Lieut.-Gov., his first 

speech in the General Assembly, 

138. 
■ — George, Lieut.-Gov., his action on 

the Indian affairs of the Colony, 

139. 
George, ex-Lieut.-Gov., his career, 

155, note, and 156. 
George Hyde, son of Lieut.-Gov., 

156. 
Claus, Santa, 69-71. 
Clermont, Fulton's First Steamboat, 351, 

352 
Cliff Street, 89, 90, 211, 226. 
Clinton, Admiral George, Governor of 

New York, 155, 233. 
Admiral George, his Address to 

the Assembly, 157. 
— — ■ — Admiral George-, asserts the Royal 

prerogative, 162. 

— Admiral George, resigns, 164. 

De Witt, Mayor of New York, 

343. 
De Witt, appointed Mayor a 

second time, 358. 

De Witt, 408, 488. 

De Witt, superseded by Judge 

Pvadcliffe, 358. 
De Witt, his character and con- 
duct, public and private, 358, 

359. 
De Witt, his firmness and patriot- 
ism as Mayor, 308. 
De Witt, Governor, opens the 

Erie Canal, 3!) 1, 3! IS. 
Clinton, Sir Henrv, 154, 247,258, 265. 

Hall, 649. 

Mrs. George, 308. 

Clover- Watie, The, or Pasture-field, 83. 
Cod, Cape, 51. 



118 



INDEX. 



Coddington, J. J., 518. 
Coenties Alley, 481. 

Battery, 246. 

Lane, 475. 

Slip, 19, 87, 186, 474, 475, 480, 

481, 497. 
Coffee-House Slip, 318, 331, 344, 

480, 481. 
The Breast-works erected at, 246. 

Burns', Sons of Liberty kindle a 

bon-fire before, 207, 590. 
Colden, Dr. Cadwallader, 109, 120, 130, 
135, note, 163, 188, 190, 191, 194, 
200, 225. 

Dr. Cadwallader, Governor of 

New York, 190. 

Dr. Cadwallader, hung in effigy, 

200. 

Dr. Cadwallader, ex-Governor, ap- 
pointed a third time Governor 
of New York, 222. 

Cadwallader, D., at Erie Canal 

celebration, 398. 

Alexander, 200. 

Cold Spring, 372. 

Colgate, C. C, 608. 

College Controversy, 179. 

Collect (Kolck), site of the Tombs, 12, 83, 
91, 271. 

Colonial Congress, 281. 

Currency, authorization of a, by 

the Government, 230. 

Colony sides with England against 
France, 159. 

state of, described by John Pin- 

tard, 255. 

described by Dunlop, 255. 

Columbian Order, or Tammany Society, 
established, 328. 

Columbia (King's) College, charter grant- 
ed, 177. 

people's opposition to grant of 

charter, 177-179. 

Colve, Capt., 67. 

Capt., made Governor of New 

Netherland, 67. 

Commerce at a stand-still, 554. 

Commission appointed by Gov. Stuyve- 
sant to confer with Capt. Scott, 
61. 

Committee of Seventy, 620-634. 

" Commons," The, 91. 

Common Council, 201, 332, 394, 459, 647. 

Comparison between England and Am- 
erica, 654. 

Coney Island, 59, 64, 97. 

Island, Dirck De Wolf com- 
mences to make salt at, 59. 

Conflagration of 1804, 344. 

terrible, of 1811, 366, 367, note. 

of 1835, 471^86. 



Conflagration of 1835, accounts of tene- 
ments consumed, 481, 482. 
of 1845, 509, 510. 



Congress, General, held at New York, 
198. 

of the Indians and Six Nations at 

Albany, 127. 
Conijnen Eylant (Rabbit Island), 97. 
Connecticut, 60, 197, 371. 
Shore, 372. 



Connolly, Richard B., 620, 627-630. 
Richard B., goes to jail, 633. 



Constable's House, 287. 
Constantinople, 512. 
Continental Congress, 243, 373 
Army, 374 



Contingent furnished by New York City 

to defend the Union, 648. 
Conway, Minister, 209. 
Cook, Ransom, 350. 
Cooper, J. Fenimore, himself and Percival 

dine together at the City Hotel, 

489. 
Cooper Institute, 413, 620, 624 649. 

Corlear's Hook, Woods, 339. 
Cornbury, Lord, appointed Governor of 

New York, his character and 

administration, 122. 
Lord, superseded by Lovelace as 

Governor of New York, 123. 

detestation of, 123. 

Cornwallis, Lord, 258. 

Corporate Seal of New Amsterdam and 

New York, 40. 
Corporation Librarv, 131. 
Corry, Wni., MS. letter to Sir Wm. John- 
son, 181. 
Cortelyou, Jacques, makes a Survey and 

Map of New Amsterdam, 58. 
Cortlandt Street, 107, 254, note, 375, 495. 
Cosby, Gov. William, 133, 138, 162. 
Costello, Michael, 632. 
Cotton, John, clerk to General Congress, 

198. 
Council held at Fort George, 135, note. 
of Appointment, 344, note, 647. 



Courceiles, The Chevalier de, Governor of 

Canada, 109. 
Cox, Rev. Dr., 403. 

Jameson, Register, 510. 



Cozine, John, 287, 341. 

Cranberry, N. J., stages run to, 186. 

Credit, Bills of, or Paper Currency, issue 

of objected to by Assembly, 161. 
Creek Indians visit New York as the 

guests of Tammany, 328. 
Criminal Trial, Remarkable ; sensational 

denouement, 342-344. 
Crisis, Great Financial, of 1857, 535-537. 
Croaker, The, a poem, 490. 
Crolius, Clarkson, 399. 



INDEX. 



no 



Crosby, Philip, 172. 

Street, 467. 

" Crossing the Ferry " at New York, 

354. 
Croton Aqueduct, 500, 507. 

Aqueduct at Sing Sing, 501. 

Dam, 506. 

River, 500. 

Crown, prerogative of, in appointment of 

Colonial Treasurer, resisted, and 

office declared elective, 146. 
Crown Point, 132, 199, 214. 
Cruger, John, Mayor of New York, 182, 

219. 
John, chosen Speaker of the new 

Assembly, 221. 

Nicholas, 284. 

Crummashie Hill, 93. 
Crystal Palace, 511. 

Palace, World's Fair at, 528. 

Custis, G. W. P., 232. 

Custom-Duty of 30 per cent, exacted, 

53. 
Custom House, 421. 
Customs at Funerals, 81. 
Cyane, sloop of war, 396. 

Daly. Chief-Justice, C. P., 270, 359, 483, 
528. 

" Dam," The, 501. 

Damen, Jan Jansen, 33. 

Jan Jansen, appointed Kirke- 

Meester, 33. 

Dana, Chief Justice, 436. 

Davis, Robert, 376. 

Dead-Rabbit Riot, 534. 

Deaf and Dumb Asylum, 638. 

Dean, Captain, 187. 

Dean Richmond, a steamboat, 641. 

Debtors' Prison, History of the old, 469. 

Prison (Provost and Hall of Re- 
cords), 367, 468. 

Declaratory Act, 208, 211. 

Act distasteful to the people, 212. 

Declaration of Independence, 246, 288. 

Delafield, John, 318. 

Delaware, 26, 41, 55. 

Expedition from Boston to the, 41. 

— Second Expedition, 41, 42. 

■ Trade, Interference of New Eng- 
land Adventurers with, 42'. 

Delft, 59. 

Delmonico's, 231. 

Denmark, 42. 

Denonville, Marquis, Governor of Canada, 
112. 

Design, Academy of 588, 589, 609. 

Dey Street, 165, 463, 495. 636, 637. 

De La Barre, Governor of Canada, 111. 

De Brehaii, La M., 309 

De Fore ,t, Henry, 275. 



De Lancey, Bishop, 182. 

Chief Justice and Gov., James, 

139, 147, 152, 171, 177, 182, 190. 
Chief Justice, James, his address 

on behalf of Council, in reply to 

the Governor, 157. 
Chief Justice, James, assumes the 

government, 173. 
Chief Justice, James, again ap- 
pointed Governor, 179. 
Chief Justice, James, Death of, 

182. 
Chief Justice, James, Review of 

his life, 183. 

Mi-. James, 224. 

—. Oliver, 181. 

Stephen, 152. 



De Landais, Pierre, 431, 434. 

His tombstone at St. Patrick's 

Cathedral, New York, 434. 
De Meyer, Nicholas, 106. 
De Milt, Anthony, appointed Schout, 

68. 
De Peyster, Abraham, 148. 
De Ruyter, Admiral, Michael, 54. 
De Viellecour, Mr., 440, 454. 
De Vries, Captain, 26, 28 33. 
De Wint, J. P., 326. 
De Witt, Capt. Cornelis, 14. 

Rev. Dr. Thomas, 655. 

Dickens, Charles, Dinner given to, by the 

Press, 638. 
Digby, Admiral, 271. 
Dircksen, Adrian, 32. 
Cornelis, 29, 90. 



Directors of West India Company, 22. 

Discovery of Fish in United States rivers 
and lakes by Le Moyne ; its 
value to the State as a source of 
revenue, 55. 

Discussion on admission of the Bible 
without comment into Public 
Schools, 508, 509, and note. 

on the right of the British Parlia- 
ment to tax America, 216. 

Disosway, Gabriel P., narrative of fire of 
1835,471-482. 

Ditches cut across the island from North 
to East rivers, 246. 

Doctor's Mob, 234-2:;<;. 

Dodge, William E., 637. 

Domestic arrangements of early Dutch 
settlers, 71-86. 

Dominick, Francis, 170. 

Dongan, Governor, 87, 109, 110, 112, 113, 
141, 181. 

Governor, his charter, 116. 

Governor, his administration, 113. 

"Don Jon," or Old Debtors' Prison, 
changed into Hall of Records, 
468. 



120 



INDEX. 



Dordrecht, 17. 

Downing, the Oyster King, 477. 

Draft for Soldiers to serve in war of 

1863-5, 539. 
" Draft Riot," The, in 1863, 461, 539-562 
Draper, Simeon, 532. 
Drawing School Association, 587. 
Dresses, description of those worn at 

"Washington Inauguration Ball, 

310-314. 
Duane, James, Mayor of the city, 308, 

329. 

Mrs., 309. 

Street, 93, 232, 335, 529. 

Dudley, Joseph, 119. 
Duelling-ground, Weehawken, 348. 
Duer, William A., 232, 350. 

William 341. 

Lady Kitty, 309. 

Duke's County, 114. 

Duncan Sherman and Co.'s Banking 

House, 603. 
Dunlap, W., 134, 151, 241, 287. 
Dunlop, an artist, 301, 416, 422. 
Dunmore, John, Earl of, Governor of 

New York, 230, 232, 237. 
John, Earl of, transferred to Vir- 
ginia; Sir William Tryon his 

successor, 231. 
Duryea, Colonel, 525. 
Dutchess County, 114. 

County, trouble in, 210. 

County, Rioters visit Albany 

County, and threaten to attack 

New York, 211. 
Dutch Ancestors, 75. 

Church at the Battery, 78. 

Church, Middle (the present Post 

Office), 254, 255, 516. 
Church, North, (previously a pris- 
on), in William Street, 254, 

593. 

■ Reformed Church, 77, 93, 125. 

Company (East India), abolish 

their monopoly, and open the 

trade, 50. 
Company, prohibition of employes 

of, to trade with Indians, 33. 

■ Customs, 72. 

East India Company, 10. 

Emigrants, 85. 

Government investigate the af- 
fairs of the Company, 46. 

Matrons, 75. 

— Titles, list of ancient, 86. 

Traders, 17. 

The, finally dispossessed of New 

Netherland, 68. 
West India Company, 17, 22, 50, 

58, 147. 
Duties on Imports and Exports, 63, 64. 



Early Hours observed by Washington's 

Family, 315-317, 
East Broadway, 529. 
East Indies, 10, 14. 
India Company, their projects in 

relation to Tea Trade, 238. 
India Company, agents forced to 

resign, 239. 

Jersey, 103. 

River, 12, 21, 24, 29, 52, 89, 90, 

91, 93, 98, 102, 272, 344, 375, 

426, 473, 474, 480. 

River, Trade on, 52. 

Eaton, Gov., of New Haven, protests 

against Gov. Stuyvesant, 51. 
Eddy, Thomas, 408. 
Edgar, Mrs., 287, 309. 
Edmond, Judge, J. W., 528. 
Education, Board of, 507. 

State of, in New York, 649. 

Edwards, Jonathan, pastor of Wall Street 

Church, 420, 655. 
Eelkins, Jacob, agent at Fort Nassau, 16, 

27, 28. 
Eendragt, a ship, 23, 24. 
Egremont, Earl of, 192. 
Election, contested, between Adolphe 

Philipse and Gerrit Van Home, 

140. 
of Assemblymen, contest between 

Church party and Dissenters, 

219. 

Riots, 10th April, 1834, 456-460. 

Elevated Railroad, 612. 

Elizabethtown (Elizabeth), 103, 296, 

297, 307. 
Ellicott, Mr., 408. 
Elliott, Henry H, 466, note. 
Elliott, an artist, 637. 
Elm Street, 457. 
Emanuel College, 105. 
Embury, Philip, 211. 
Emigration Statistics, 651. 
Eminent Personages in New York, Remi- 
niscences of, 422-439. 
Visitors at " Shakspearo Tavern," 

488-490. 
Emmet, T. Addis, 368. 
T. Addis, Dr., President of State 

Woman's Hospital, 537. 
Empress, a ship, 187. 
England, 24, 49, 53, 68. 
English Language officially recognized 

in New Amsterdam, 39. 
design to monopolize the fur trade, 

108-110. 
Enhanced value of property in New 

York, 605. 
Episcopalian party in New York, 174. 
Equitable Life Insurance Company, 603. 
Erie Canal, 642. 



INDEX. 



121 



Erie Canal, Ttie, projected by De "Witt 

Clinton, 348. 
Canal, Rejoicings in celebration 

of completion of, 379, 389-401. 
Canal, Popularity of the project, 

389. 
Canal, First Canal-boat proceeds 

along entire line from Buffalo to 

Sandy Hook, 390. 
Canal, Celebration in New York 

City, 391-411. 
Canal, Steam and Sailing Fleet, 

Pageant, Ball, and Banquet, 

395-411. 
Canal, British Men-of-War salute 

American Fleet, 400. 

Canal, Land Procession, 401. 

Canal, Civic Procession, 402. 

Lake, 109. 

Esopus (Kingston), 277. 

Evarts, William M., is associated with 

Charles O'Conor in prosecuting 

the Ring, 629. 
Everett, Edward, his connection with the 

Greek Rebellion, 412. 
Evertsen, Admiral, 67. 
Exchange, Merchants', in Wall Street, 

completed, 419. 
Place (Garden Street), 88, 124, 

419, 474, 509, 510. 

Breast-works erected at the, 240. 

Street, 419. 

Excise Duty imposed on wine, beer, 

brandy, and beaver skins, 43, 44. 
Exorbitant price of provisions, 370, 372, 

373, note. 
Exports, duty of 10 per cent, paid to 

Company, 35. 
Express from New York to Boston, 325. 
Express Newspaper established by the 

Brothers Hudson, 323. 
Eyres, Nicholas, 126. 

Faiks, two Annual, institiited, 37. 

Falmouth, 187. 

Farm, No. 1, 24. 

No. 3, 24. 

Fashions in New York from 1680 to 
1690, 80. 

Fathom, a, 38, note. 

Faubourg St. Antoine, 422. 

Faunce's Tavern. See Sam Francis's 
Tavern. 

Faxton, Theodore S., 188. 

Federal Constitution, adoption of, public- 
ly announced, 282. 

— Government, action of the, in the 

" Draft Riot," 560, 561 

Hall, Wall Street, Inauguration 

of Washington at, 301-303. 

Fenton, Reuben E., 166. 



Ferry, Difficulty in crossing, in the olden 
time, 354. 

House, the, 88. 

New Amsterdam and Long Is- 
land, 40, note. 

Old (Peck Slip), 90. 

Regulations, 40. 

Regulations and Tolls, 358, note. 

— Street, 13, 91, 165. 

Festivals, peculiar and social, observed in 
New York, etc., 69. 

Fete given by the French Minister to 
President Washington, 313. 

Fifth Avenue, 336. 

— Avenue Hotel, 513, 514. 
Avenue, Reservoir in, 506. 



Financial panic of 1857, 535-537. 

crisis at New Netherland, 43. 

— difficulties ; discontent of citizens, 

65. 

— ■ resources of New York City, 

643. 
Fire Companies, 583-586. 

Department, History of the Old 

and New, 563, 
Department (Volunteer), organ- 
ized, 563. 
Department (Voluntary), estab- 
lished, 581. 

Department, reorganized, 583. 

Engine, first in America, 579. 

Engines, 576-581. 

"Firemen of the City of New York," 

581. 
Fires, the numerous, attributed to the 
slaves, who were accused as in- 
cendiaries, 331. 
Fires in New York : 

Conflagration of 1776, 250. 
1796, 331. 
1811, 366. 
1835, 471-499. 
" " 1845, 509. 

Burning of Crystal Palace, 511, 528. 
" " Barnum's Museum, 511. 
" « Winter Garden Theatre, 

511. 
" " Academy of Music, 511. 
" " Harper's Building, 511. 
" " Colored Orphan Asylum 

542. 
" " Merchants' Exchange 
(See Fire of 1835.) 
First Free Grammar School founded by 

the Corporation, 122. 
Fish, Preserved, 483. 

Market pulled down, 331. 



Fisk, Col. James, Jun., assassinated, 634 

note. 
Fitch, John, the real inventor of the 

steamboat, 349. 



122 



INDEX. 



Fitch, John, History of the first applica- 
tion of steam to river and sea 

navigation, 349-351. 
Five Nations, 109, 110, 117, 120. 

Nations in Council, 119. 

Nations, Convention of, 110. 

Points, 83. 

Points Riot, 1835, described, 467. 

Flame, a ship, 42. 

Flatbush, or Midwout, 60, 148. 

Fleming, Major-General, 401. 

Fleet of five ships despatched by Dutch 

Government to regain New 

Amsterdam, 67. 
Fletcher, Col., Governor of New York, 

117, 119, 120-122, 142, 174. 

— Col., career of, 120, 121. 

Florida, 23. 

Flour, method of manufacture, 76. 

Riot of 1837, 493^99. 

Floyd, William, 262. 

Flushing, 171. 

Fly Market, 90, 226, 354. 

Market Slip, 306. 

" Flying Machine," The, 187. 
Foreman, Joshua, a pioneer of the Erie 

Canal, 390. 
Forrest, Edwin, his connection with the 

Astor-place Riot, 520. 
Fort Amsterdam, 62. 

George, i Battery), 135,199, 214,273. 

Hope, (South River), 35. 

Lee, 250. 

■ Orange, (Albany), 28. 

St. Frederick ( Crown Point), 132. 

— : Stanwix (Rome), lo9, 344. 

■ Ticonderoga, 214, 593. 

Washington, 250. 

— William Hendrick, 67. 

" Fortune " and " Tiger," two ships, 14. 
Fourteenth Regiment, or Governor's 

Guard, 374, 375, note. 
Fourth Avenue, 609. 
France, 18, 289. 
Francis, Dr. John W., 416. 

Sam, tavern, 231, 298. 

Franklin, Benjamin, 456. 

Square, 165, 300. 

Statue,in Printing-House Square, 

unveiling of, 639. 

Street, 457. 

Lady, visits New York, as the 

guest of the Hon. Henry Grin- 

nel, 538. 
Tommy, one of the old firemen, 

510. 
French settlement on the St. Lawrence, 

112. 
Republic, arrival of Genet, first 

Minister of the new, to the 

United States, 321. 



French Minister, enthusiastic welcome 
accorded him by the citizens 
and U. S. Government, 321. 

French's Hotel, 336. 

Freshwater Pond (Collect or Kolck), 12, 
13, 83, 91, 271. 

Friesland, 42 . 

Frontenac, Louis de Buade, Count de, 
Governor of Canada, 113, 120. 

Front Street, 29, 344, 473, 481. 

" Fulton's Folly," origin of the term, 351. 

Fulton Ferry, 357. 

Market, 90. 

— Robert, 349, 408. 

Robert, his claims disputed, 349. 

Robert, a steamship, 383. 

Street, 166, 184, 487, 492. 

Furman, 98. 

Fur Trade, improvement in, 41. 

Gage, General, 30, 190, 199, 211, 212, 
241. 

Gaine, Hugh, 250, 275, 287, 319, 488. 

Garden Street, 87, 88, 419, 472, 475. 

- Street Church, 472-477. 

Gardoqui, Don, Spanish Ambassador, 
306. 

Gaspe', a frigate, destroyed in the waters 
of the Narragansett, 239. 

General Assembly, power of the, ac- 
knowledged, 145. 

Assembly, New, elected, 156. 

Assembly, first meeting since com- 
mencement of Stamp-Act Riot, 
203. 

— Assembly, Governor's opening 

speech, Oct. 27, 1768, 215. 

Assembly dissolved, and new one 

convened, 218. 

Congress held at New York, 198. 

Genesee Valley, 418. 

Genet, Citizen, arrival at Charleston as 
accredited Minister from the 
French Republic to the V. S., 
321. 

George II., 166, 190, 647. 

III., accession of, to the throne of 

England, 190. 

III., 208, 469. 

-Fort, (Battery), 135, 199, 214, 273. 

Georgia, 213. 

Geresolveert, a sheriff, 103. 

Gerrit, a guide, 103. 

Gerry, Mrs., 309. 

Girondists, 445. 

Gomez, Mordecai, 319. 

Goodrich, S. G., (Peter Parley), 371, 489, 
490, note. 

Good Hope, a yacht, 45. 

Hope, Cape of, 17. 

Gold Coast, 60. 



INDEX. 



123 



Gold Street, 83, 90. 

Golden Hill (John Street, between Gold 
and Cliff Streets), 90, 106. 

Hill, Battle of, 226, 228. 

Shark, a ship, 55. 

Gouverneur Lane, 344, 473. 

Gouanes (Go-wanus), 99. 

— (Gowanus) Oysters, 99. 

Governor's Island, 19, 376. 

Island, Fortifications thrown up 

on, 246. 

Government of the City of New York, 
116. ^ 

appointments exasperate the peo- 
ple, 192. 

Grace Church, 425. 

Graham, English historian, 214. 

Gramercy Park, 93. 

Grand Central Depot, 601. 

Opera House, 607, 611, 612. 

Street, 12, 13, 232, 467. 

Street Dock, 356. 

Gravesend, 59. 

Gray's Rope Walk, 227. 

" Great Citizenship," The Charter of, 56. 

Great Chicago Fire, 617, 618. 

Chicago Fire, Liberality of Am- 
erican Citizens to the Sufferers 
by, 617, 618. 

Dock Street, 300. 

excitement in New York City, 

224. 

Fire in New York, in 1835, 323, 

324. 471-499. 

Mass Meeting in the Park of New 

York City, to protest against 
Loan Bill, 223. 

Western, a steamship, 325. 

Barren Island, 233. 

Greek Rebellion, New York City gives 
aid to, 411. 

Greeley, Horace, goes to Albany to op- 
pose the New Charter, 613. 

" Green Dragon," The, in the Bowery, 
486. 

Greene, Captain, 187. 

Greene, General Nathaniel, detached to 
put New York and Long Island 
in a state of defence, 246. 

General Nathaniel, urges the de- 
struction of New York City, 
248 

Street, 13, 342. 

Green, William, 170. 

Andrew H., appointed Comptrol- 
ler, 627. 

Greenland Company, 9. 

Greenwich Street, 87, 154, 318, 331, 403, 
613. 

■ Village, 24, 104, 159, 377,444, 465. 

Grenville, George, 195. 



Griffin's Wharf, 240. 
Griffin, Mrs., 309. 
Grinnell, Moses H, 637. 
Henry, 528. 



Grounds of New York Hospital, elegant 
stores now erected on site, 603. 

Hackensack River, or Archter Cul, 
187. 

Hackney Coach, the first, 93, note. 

Hague, the Dutch Government at the, 
42,59. 

Rev. Dr., 367. 

Haldimand, General, commander-in-chief, 
vice Gen. Gage, 241. 

Hale, J. W., starts an express, 325. 

" Half Moon," Hendrick Hudson's ex- 
ploring vessel, 10, 14. 

Half Moon Fort, 115. 

Halifax, Earl of, 191. 

Halifax, N. S., 216. 

Hallams, The, actors at the John Street 
Theatre, 338. 

Halleck, Fitz-Greene, 375, 418, 489, 637. 

Hall of Records, the old Debtors' Prison, 
468. 

Hall, A. Oakey, Mayor, 620. 

Brigadier-General, 525. 



Hamburgh, 512. 

Hamersley Street, 14. 

Hamilton, Alexander, 137, 235, 245, 283, 

303, 341, 342. 
Alexander, Killed by Aaron Burr 

in a duel, 345. 

Alexander, 420, 512, 630. 

Andrew, eminent American 

lawyer, defends Zenger, 135. 
Andrew, receives the freedom of 

city in a gold box, 136. 
Federal ship, carried in procession, 

286. 

Fort, 359. 

Hamlet, a ship, 394. 
Hanover Street, 419, 481, 482. 

Square, 89, 93, 272, 336, 473. 



Hardenbrook Club, 340. 

Hardie, his account of the yellow fever, 

377. 
Hard Times of 1812, 370. 
Hardy, Sir Charles, Governor of New 

York, 179, 271. 
Sir Charles, resigns, 179. 



Harlem Heights, 233, 248. 

Plains, 250. 

River, 126, 504, 657. 

— River at High Bridge, 502. 

Harnden, W. F., establishes the first Ex- 
press Company, 325. 

Harper, an actor at John St. Theatre, 
338. 

Harper's Building, 511. 



124 



INDEX. 



Harper's Weekly, its aid in exposing the 
frauds of the Tammany Ring, 
635. 

Magazine, 516. 

Harrison, Richard, 341. 

Mr., 135. 

Harsen Estate, 598. 

Hart, Canal Commissioner, 408. 

Eli, his store sacked by a mob, 495. 

Hartford, 186. 

The JEtna of, Insurance Com- 
pany, 476. 

Havemeyer, TV. F., 620. 

Hay, Lady, 123. 

Hays, Thomas, correspondence -with au- 
thor, 367. 

Heath, General, 244. 

Helas, Colonel, his regriment called out in 
the Flour Riots, 498. 

Hell Gates, The, 83, 102, 266, 489. 

Gates, Great and Little, described, 

102. 

Hendrick, Fort William, 67. 

Henlopen, Cape, 51. 

Henry, Patrick, 140. 

Henry VII., 374. 

Herald Building, 602. 

Heere Straat (Broadway), 30. 

Heerman's Orchard, 93. 

Hewlett, David, 424. 

Hewletts, The, 424. 

Hicks, Whitehead, 240. 

High Bridge, 502, 504. 

Highlands, Defence of, 245. 

Hillsborough, Earl of, his letter to Gov- 
ernor Moore, 217. 

Hineman, Colonel, 410. 

Historical Society of New York, 234,268, 
386, 639. 

Society of New York founded, 

345. 

Society of Long Island, 93. 

— Magazine, 270, 605. 

Hitchcock, Professor, 413. 

Hoboken Ferry, 355, 375. 

Ferry-boat, 355, 376. 

Hodgkinson, Thomas, landlord of Shaks- 
peare Tavern, 487. 

John, lessee of the Park Theatre, 

488. 

Hoffman, Josiah Ogden, 287, 341, 362. 

Governor, 533, 616. 

Holidays and National Festivals, descrip- 
tion of, 69, 70, 71. 

Holland, 14, 15, 20, 21, 30, 57, 59, 97, 289. 

citizens of, 56. 

— and Boston (Export Trade be- 
tween), 30. 
■ North, 17. 

Hollanders, 16. 

" Hollandia " (Wall Street), 92. 



Holt, John, an editor, 276. 

" Honest John Laing," 480. 

Hoofden (Headlands), 97. 

Hook and Ladder Companies, 586. 

Hope, Fort, 35. 

Horse and Cart Lane, 593, note. 

Horsmanden, Daniel, Chief Justice, 135, 

144, 152, 163, 194. 
Hosack, Doctor, 234, 358, 369, 386, 415. 
Hospital, New York City, 211. 

New York City, founded, 231. 

New York City, destroyed, 598, 

603. 

State Woman's, 537. 

Hostility between the soldiers and the 

people, 212. 
Hotel, Fifth Avenue, 513, 514. 
Hotham, Admiral, 247. 
House of Commons, 246. 

of Representatives, convened, 292. 

Hoven, 14. 

Howard, Lord, 110. 

Howe, Lord, arrives with reinforcements 

off Sandy Hook, 247. 
Howe, Dr. Samuel G., 412. 
Hubbard, Rev. Mr., 122. 
Hudson, Hendrick, 9, 10, 14. 
Brothers, establish the first News 

Room, 323. 

— River, 14, 78, 372. 

River Railroad Freight Depot 

erected on site of St. John's 

Park, 12, 598 

Square, 232. 

shore of the, 439. 

Huguenots, 22. 

Huggins, the Barber- Author, 453. 

Hughes, Archbishop, 508. 

Archbishop, addresses the rioters, 

OOo. 

Hughson, John, an alleged accomplice in 
the Negro Plot, 151, 

Human remains in Old North Dutch 
Church graveyard removed to 
Greenwood Cemetery, 594. 

Hume, the historian, 150. 

Humphries, Colonel, 309. 

Hunter, Governor, 123, 126, 152, 162. 

Fort, 139. 

Huntington, an artist, 637. 

Husking Bees, 69. 

Hutchinson, Chief Justice, 192, 237. 

Ibrahim Pasha oppresses the Greeks, 

412. 
Ides, Vrouwtje, 270. 
Illinois, 108. 

Trade, 108. 



niurninations in New York, 305-307. 
Inauguration Ball (Washington), 282, 
307. 



INDEX. 



125 



Incleberg (Beacon or Murray Hill), 93. 

IndopeTxdent Battery, The, 246. 

Independent Gazette, 277. 

Independent Reflector, The, established, 
175. 

India, Channel to, 14. 

Indian Trade, 109, 215. 

■ War, 26, note. 

Indians, 14, 16, 20, 23. 

War with, occasioned by tax 

levied on corn, furs, etc., sup- 
plied by them, 36, 37. 

New England, enter into competi- 
tion with Long Island Mon- 
tauks, 38. 

■ Treaty with, 47. 

Raritan, employed as miners, 48. 

invade Canada, 112. 

trade with, revived, 126, 127. 

the Stockbridge, collisions be- 
tween them and the citizens of 
Dutchess county, 21Q. 

Industrial status of New York, facts and 
figures relating to, 645. 

Inglis, Rev. Dr. Charles, 252. 

Ingoldesby, Major Richard, 119. 

Inman, Henry, 416, 637. 

John, "490. 

Institution for Deaf and Dumb, 638, 639. 

for Deaf and Dumb, Col. W. L. 

Stone, one of its earliest and 
most zealous promoters, 638, 
note. 

Insurance Patrols, 482. 

Iroquois, 16. 

Indians and the French, war be- 
tween, 111. 

Irish and American mobs in the Five 
Points Riot, 468. 

Irving House, 511. 

Judge, 483. 

Jackson, Gen. Andrew, Ball given in his 

honor at the City Hotel, 374, 

375. 
Jacques, Moses, 495. 
Jamaica, 61, 122, 159. 
James River, Virginia, 11. 

Street, 12, 13. 

Duke of York and Albany, 60, 

68, 106, 108. 

II., 118, 122, 647. 

Major, 201, 209. 

Jan, Mr., 97. 

Japanese Embassy, reception of, 538. 

Jarvis, John Wesley, 453. 

Jauncey, .Tamos, 219. 

Jay, John, eminent American lawyer, 

232, 235, 283, 300, 329, 341. 

Peter A., 362. 

Jefferson, Thomas, 329, 422, 441. 



Jemison, an interpreter, 416. 
Jenny Lind visits United States, 528. 
Jersey, New, 11. 
Blues, 488. 



Prison ship, 255. 

Jesuits, 110. 

Jews, 22, 641. 

Jewish Cemetery, 91, 246. 

John Street,. 83, 89, 105, 211, 226, 336, 

338, 420. 

Street,Theater in, 338. 

Johnson, Sir John, 308. 

Rev. Samuel, first President of 

Columbia College, 177. 
Colonel Sir William, 165, 177, 

181, 183, 200, 206, 218, 221, 

230. 
Mrs. Isidore, affecting incident of, 

334. 
Joinville, Prince de, 538. 
Joncaire, Father, 128. 
Jones, Mr., member of Colonial Assembly, 

194. 

Paul, 431. 

Samuel, the elder, an eminent 

American lawyer, 341. 
Jones's Wood, 489. 
Joris, Adriaen, 20. 
Journal of Commerce, 231. 325, 327. 
of Commerce Building, 271. 



Judson, E. Z. C. (Ned Buntline), 522. 

Kalb, Baron de, 187. 
Kats, Old, 452. 

Keith, Governor William, 127. 
Kennedy House (No. 1 Broadway), 
152, 270. 

Capt. Archibald, 

Robert L., 608. 



153, 271. 



Kensett, an artist, 637. 

Kerstrydt (Christmas), 69. 

Kewley, Rev. John, 170. 

Key of Kalmar, a ship, 42. 

Kidd, Captain, the Pirate, 74. 

Captain, arrested, and sent to 

England for trial, 122. 
Kieft, Governor, William, 26, 32, 33, 39. 
Governor, William, makes a levy 

on Van Rensselaer's goods, 42. 
Governor, William, discovers war 

material in the cargo, 43. 
Governor, William, embarks for 

Holland, and is lost at sea, 48. 
Kil von Kol, 97. 
" Kill," The, 501. 
King's Bridge, 131. 249. 

— Chapel, 167. 

College, 177. 241, 251. 

County, 114. 

Birthday celebration, 1766., 208. 

Road, 339. 



126 



INDEX. 



King's Arms Tavern, 80, note. 

King Street, 227. 

William, III. 121. 

Kip, Hendricksen, one of the nine men, 
wishes to depose Kieft, 30, 56. 

Mrs., 148. 

Rt. Rev. Bishop, 657. 

Kirke-lVIeesters, 34. 

Kissam, Mr., 219. 

" Kissing Bridge," The, 83. 

Knight, Miss S., travels on horseback 
from Boston to New York ; diary 
of her journey, 125, 126. 

Knox, General, 300, 311, 421. 

Kochs, Peter, 152, 270. 

Mrs. 152, 270. 

Koeck, bell-ringer, 77. 

" Kolck," see Collect. 

Kolck Hook, 91. 

Koopman, 20. 

Koorn, Nicholas, appointed " Wacht- 
Meester," at Beeren Island, 45. 

Krigier, Capt. Martin, 30, 57, 567. 

Krigier's Tavern, 30. 

Tavern, Demolition of, 30, note. 

Kuyter, Damen, Kieft, and De Vries, ap- 
pointed Kirke-Meesters, 33. 

Labadists visit New York and Long Is- 
land ; their journal, 93-105. 

Lafayette Amphitheatre, Laurens Street, 
407. 

Fort, 383. 

General, 338. 

General, reception of, and his son, 

at New York, 379-389. 

General, visit various national in- 
stitutions, 386-389. 

General, Departure for Boston and 

Philadelphia, 387, 388. 

General, his death, 459. 

General, Funeral honors paid him 

by the authorities and citizens, 
459. 

Place, Riot at, 527. 

Laight, Edward W., 170. 

William, 287, 318. 

Street, 463. 

Laing, John, " Honest John Laing," 
editor of New York Gazette, 480. 

Lake's Hermitage, 339. 

Lake Champlain, 182. 

near John and Gold Streets, 83. 

Lamb, Anthony, 580. 

John, 201, 224, 240, 245, 510. 

Landais, Pierre de, 431-434. 

Landon, M. D., describes election-day 
frauds, 632. 

Samuel, 287. 

Land-gate, 89. 

Langdon, John, 292. 



Langdon, Mrs., 309. 

Lansing, Chief Justice, his charge at Levi 

Weeks' trial, 341-343. 
Latimer, Hugh, 137. 
Laud, Archbishop, 137. 
Laughton, Jack, 301. 
Laurence, Isaac, 170. 
Lawrence, Cornelius W., Mayor, 464, 466. 
Eugene, his description of New 

York during British occupation, 

268, note. 
La Monta;~ne, Dr. Johannes, a member of 

Kieft's Council, 32, 56. 
La Salle, Robert, Cavalier de, 108, 109. 
Leake, John, builder of Shakespeare 

Tavern, 487. 
L'Enfant, M., 301. 
Lee, Richard Henry, 214, 292. 

General Arthur, 246. 

Richard Bland, 292. 

Mayor, 458. 

Fort, the retreat of Washington, 

250. 
Lee's Dragoons, 301. 
Le Moyne, a Jesuit, discovers fish in 

American Lakes, 55. 
Leisler, ex-Governor, executed for trea- 
son, 118, 141. 
Lenni Lenape Indians, 11. 
Leonard Street, 182, 340, 463, 604. 
Lewis, Zachariah, proprietor of the 

Mine mi, alters its title to the 

Commercial Advertiser, 331. 
Lewis, Morgan, 299. 
Lexington, Battle of, 228, 244. 
Libel Suit, first great, tried in the city, 

134. 
Lichenstein, Max Jahn, 435, 438. 
Light-house erected at Sandy Hook, 184. 
Lincoln, Abraham, statue of, 514. 
Abraham, funeral obsequies of, 

657. 
Lind, Jenny, visits New York, 528. 
Liquor, Sale of, prohibitory laws passed, 

49. 
Lispenard Meadows, 335, 340. 
Street, 340, 603. 



Literature and Art in New York, 636, 
637. 

Little Queen Street, 320. 

Livingston, Chancellor, 300, 349, 390. 441. 

Brockholst, eminent Amt rican 

lawyer, 341, 342. 

Doctor, 421. 

James, 177. 

Peter van Burph, delivers con- 
gratulatory address to Washing- 
ton, 244. 

Robert, 177. 

Robert R., 205, 283, 408, 445. 



William, 135, 174, 177, 191, 220. 



INDEX. 



127 



Livingston, Janet, wife of Gen. Mont- 
gomery, 374, note. 

London, 96. 

■ Fires, 512. 

Longueil, Baron de, 128. 

Long Island, its potteries, 59. 

Island Ferry, 39. 

Island, its general condition, 95, 

233, 246, 376, 474. 

Island, Battle of, 247. 

Island, fortifications thrown up on, 

246. 

Island Sound, 372, 375. 

'Longshore men and Stevedores, Strike 
among the, 486. 

Loockermans, Capt. Govert, refuses to 
strike his flag, 45. 

Lords of Trade, 210. 

Loudon, Lord, commander-in-chief of 
British army in America, ar- 
rives in New York, 181. 

Lord, his outrage upon the Char- 
ter of Liberties, 181, 182. 

Lovelace, Governor, succeeding Gov. 
Nicholls, 66, 107, 123, 141. 

Lower Bay, 186. 

Lowndes, Justice, 464. 

Lownds, Poppy, the old Jailer of the 
Debtors' Prison, 468. 

Low, Major, 401. 

Loyola, Ignatius, 109. 

Ludlow, Rev. Mr., 462, 463. 

E. H., 605. 

— Street Jail, 633. 

Lutheran Chapel, 252. 

Lyons, N. Y., 391. 

McBurney, Richard, 607. 
McCaffrey, Doctor, killed, 468. 
McDougal Street, 462, 463. 
McDougall, Captain, 227. 
McDougall's Battery, 246. 
McEvers, Stamp Distributor, 199. 
McGilvery, Alexander, a half breed, 

328. 
McGowan's Pass, 530. 
Maagde Paatje ■ Maiden Lane), 89, note 
Macready, W. C, the tragedian, his visit 

to New York, 520. 

Riot, 520. 

Madron, James, 283, 314, 365. 

James, Declares war against 

Great Britain, 367. 

Square, 335, 643. 

Madisonian Democracy, 365. 

Magellan Straits, 17. 

Magnetic Telegraph, 507. 

Maiden Lane (Maiden's Valley), 83, 

474. 
Mails, early, 186. 
Maine Coast, 54. 



Manhattan and Long Islands, description 
of, 95, 98. 

Island, or New York, 9, 10, 15, 16, 

20, 504. 

" Manhattan Sea want," 39. 

Manhattan Town, Improvements in, 50. 

Well, Miss Sand's body found in, 

342. 

Manhattanville, 249, 504, 505. 

Manhasset, 168. 

Manners and Customs and social condi- 
tion of New York under Dutch 
rule, 69. 

Manning, Captain John, 67. 

Manor of Polham, 148. 

Map and Survey of New Netherland 
made, 58. 

Marcellus, Rev. Mr., 378. 

Marine Society in Procession, 287, 394. 

Market Days and Fairs, Regulation of, 
52. 

a New, established in Broad 

Street, 124. 

Market-place for inhabitants of Long Is- 
land, etc., 88. 

Market boats rowed by women, 88. 

Marketfield Street, 30, 403, 509. 

Martivale, Galeotti, 279. 

Maryland, 110. 

Mary, Queen, 118. 

Massachusetts, 31, 35, 121, 216. 

Masonic Fraternity, 219, 220. 

Hall, 419. 

Mason, Rev. Dr. John M., 361-365, 641. 

Mathias, Mr., 416. 

Mauritius River (North River), 14, 27. 

Max-Lichenstein, Jan, 435, 438. 

Maxwell, William, 287. 

Hugh, his connection with the 

Trinity Church Riot, 361, 

May Flower, a ship, 90. 

Medical School established, 211. 

Megapolensis, Domine Johannes, 57. 

Melyn, Cornells, a patroon in Staten Is- 
land, 48. 

Mercer, Street, 603. 

Merchants' Coffee-house, 199, 207, 219, 
231, 318. 

■ Exchange Bank, 602, 603. 

Exchange, The first, 106. 

Exchange, 321, 322, 336, 419, 507. 



Exchange, burningof, 474, 476, 482. 

Merchant Street, 471. 

Mermaid Tavern, 488. 

Mersereau, John, runs a stage to Phila- 
delphia, 187. 

Methodist Denomination established, 211, 
420. 

Metropolitan Fair, Great, 638. 
Bank, Broadway, 603. 

Meyer, Nicholas, 106. 



128 



INDEX. 



Meyer, Adolph, 255. 

Mexican War, 516. 

Miamis, 111. 

Micldleburg, 17. 

Middle Dutch Church, 254, 516. 

Midwout (Flatbush>, 60. 

Mifflin, General, 2>.h\ 

Milburn, Leisler's son-in-law, 118, 141. 

Militia, The, services to the city, 459. 

Miller, Doctor Samuel, 642. 

Milligan, John, 172. 

Millington, Rev. John, 131. 

Milnor, Rev. Dr., 170. 

Milton, 654. 

Minetta Brook, 93. 

Ming, Jr., Alexander, incites a riot, 494. 

Minuit, Peter, appointed Director-General 

of New Netherland, 20, 23, 92. 
Mitchell, Doctor, pours the waters of 

various foreign rivers into the 

Atlantic Ocean, 398. 
Mohawks, or Maquas, the Iroquois tribe 

of, 120, 166. 
Mohawk River, 139. 

Valley, 139. 

Monckton, General, 191, 202. 

Montauks, The, 38. 

Montgomery, Governor John, 130, 162. 

General Richard, 244, 373. 

Montgomery's Monument, 374. 
Montgomery Ward, 167. 
Montgomery's Charter, 647. 
Montgomery, Mrs. Janet, 309, 373. 
Montreal, 109, 112, 127, 190. 
Montaigne's Tavern, 226. 
Moore Street, 87, 88. 

Rev. Richard, 168. 

Bishop, 415. 

Colonel, 167. 

— Tom, 423. 

Captain, as Columbus in the Erie 

Canal celebration, 284. 
Sir Henry, Governor. 202, 206, 

207, 208, 209, 212, 217, 221. 
Sir Henry, death of, 222 ; throws 

a gloom over the whole colony, 

230, 243, 276. 
Moravian Chapel built, 165. 
Moustier, Count, 306, 441. 
Morocco, 289. 
Morris, Colonel Roger, 250. 

Robert, 307. 

Chief Justice, 421. 

Gouverneur, 386, 421. 

Governor, 182. 

Street, 24, 92. 

Morse, John, 322. 

S. F. B., 587. 

S. F. B., erection of statue of, in 

Central Turk, 639. 
Morton, Major, 299, 381, 458. 



Mott, Gershom, 201. 

Doctor, 234. 

Mount Vernon Gardens, 340. 
Vernon, 293. 



Moyne, Father Simon C, discovers salt 
at Syracuse, 54. 

Muhlenburgh,F. Aug, 292. 

Mulberry Street, 529. 

Municipal Election in New York City, 
531-535. 

Privileges, as established in Ger- 
many and Holland, introduced 
into New Amsterdam by Gov- 
ernor Stuyvesant, 56. 

Frauds, Remonstrance of Citizens 

in relation to, 618. 

Munsell, Joel, 256. 

Murphy, Hon. Henry C, For. Corres- 
ponding Sec. Long Island His- 
torical Society, W>, 04. 

Murray Hill, Distributing Reservoir, 506. 

Street, 336, 612. 

Colonel J. B., 375. 

Music, Academy of, 511. 

Mutiny Act, 205, 211, 213, 223. 

Mutz, Katey, keeps a favorite place of 
resort, 339. 

Myers, Colonel T. Bailey, 586. 
Mrs. T. Bailey, 466. 

Naiad Hose Company, 511. 

Nancy, a ship, 243. 

Nanfan, Liu tenant Governor, 122. 

Napoleon Bonaparte, 248. 

Narrows, The, 186. 

Nassau, Fort (Albany", 16. 

Street, 115. 132, 211, 336, 487. 



Natalie, a ward of Aaron Burr, 416. 
National Guard (Seventh Regiment), 394, 

458, 482, 498. 
Academy of the Arts of Design, 

588, 589. 
Nautical Society, 394. 
Naval War between England and Hol- 
land; effect on New Netherland, 

54. 
Navy Yard, 480 ; Lafayette visits. 386. 
Negro Riot of 1712, 272. 

Plot (Riot) of 1741, 147-152. 

Negroes the special object of the fury of 

the mob during the draft riot 

of 1863. 552, 556, 559. 
Nichol, Mr., 177. 
Nieuwenhuyscn,DomineWilhelmusVan, 

96. 
Neversink Hills, 48, 97. 
Newark, 244, 275. 
Newburgh, 352. 
Newfoundland, 10, 17, 23. 
Newspapers : 

New York Gazette, 133, 136, 274,328. 



INDEX. 



129 



Newspapers : 

Boston Newsletter, 274. 
New York Weekly Journal, 13:3, 274. 
New York Evening Post, 275, 276. 
New York Mercury, 275. 
New York Gazette and Weekly Mer- 
cury, 275. 
New York Chronicle, 276. 
New York Pacquet, 27(5. 
New York Journal and General 

Advertiser, 276, 330. 
New York Royal Gazette, 278. 
Parker's Gazette, 276. 
Independent Gazette, 277. 
Rivington's Gazette, 277. 
New York Commercial Advertiser, 

282, 378, 388, 487. 
New York Express, 323. 
New York American, 375. 
British Evening Post, 227. 
Columbia, 355. 
New York Journal of Commerce, 

231, 327. 
Minerva, 331. 
Weekly Post Boy, 167. 
Independent Reflector, 175 
Universal Register, 250. 
New York Times, 619. 
New York World, account of New 
York in 1748, 166-169. 
New Amsterdam, 22, 26, 28, 34, 50, 53, 
59, 73, 76, 80, 94, 148. 

Brunswick, 186. 

Newcastle, Duke of, 232. 
New Catherine Slip, 356. 

Democracy, 613. 

England, 30, 35, 49. 

England Indians, War with, 42. 

England Puritans, 31. 

Englanders; 38, 41, 42. 

Hampshire Grants, 241. 

Hampshire, Government of, 129. 

197. 

Harlem (New York City), 102. 

Haven, 50, 121, 186. 

Jail Riot, see Riots. 

Jersey, 103, 122, 130, 144, 474. 

Netherland, 9, 17, 21, 22, 31, 38, 

46, 59, 62, 63, 64, 147. 

Netherland, the names of two 

ships ; first ship, 18, 19 ; second 
ship, 22. 

Netherland Company, 16. 

Street, 509. 

Utrecht, 61, 148. 

— Year's Day, 70, 317. 

York and Albany Steamers, 352, 

— York, Ancient and Modern, His- 
tory of Citv and Government, 
37,67. 112, '246, 639-658. 
York, Interior and social life of, 256. 



New York, Introduction of Gas and 
Croton Water, 643. 

York. Real and Personal Estate, 

estimate of, according to Census 
of 1871, 643-645. 

York Merchant Shipping and Ton- 
nage, Passenger vessels, etc., 645. 

York Post-Office Returns, 645. 

York Industrial Population, an- 
alysis, 646. 

York Charters, various, of the 

City; their provisions, 647. 

York, State of Education, Li- 
braries and Reading Rooms, 
649. 

York, Emigration Statistics, 651. 

York, Review of its condition 

generally, 649-658. 

York, "Draft Riot" in, 539-562. 

York, Subsequent Eires, not 

hitherto enumerated, 511. 

York, Comparison with other 

cities, as to number and extent 
of conflagrations, 512. 

York Bay, 243 ; frozen over, 254, 

381. 

York County, 114. 

York Pulpit, 641. 

York University, 466, 507. 

York Island, 10, 11, 12. 



York Island, topography, 11. 

York Harbor put in state of de- 
fence 246 

York Coffee-House, 404. 

York, Government of, 129. 

York Congress, 244. 

York, New Post-Office, 602. 

York Hospital, 211, 231, 598. 

York Life Assurance Company's 

Building, 603. 

York Society Library founded, 

345. 
York, Gas introduced into, 507. 



Niagara, 109, 128, 417. 
Nicnoll, William, 203. 
Nicholson, Francis, Lieutenant-Governor 

of New York and Commissioner, 

286. 
Nicolls, Colonel Richard, appointed De- 

putv-Governor for the Duke of 

York, 66, 107. 
Nieuw Jar (New Year), 70. 
Night Watch, a regular, established in 

New York City, 374^576. 
Niles's Register, 486. 
Ninth National Bank, 603. 
Noah, Major Mordecai M., 405. 
North Carolina, 231. 

Carolina, a ship, 297, 306. 

Dutch Church, in William Street, 

previously a prison, 2~> 4 



130 



INDEX. 



North River, 14, 52, 93, 102, 335, 

353, 375. 
River Steamboat, 352, note, and 

353. 
and South Rivers, Trade on, 52, 

53. 
Nott, Rev. Dr., 137. 
Number One (1) Broadway (Kennedy 

House), 154, 270, 271. 
Nutten's \ Governor's) Island, 19. 

Oates, Titus, 151. 

O'Brien, Sheriff, 613. 

O'Brien, Colonel, murdered by the mob, 

550. 
O'Connell Guards, 467. 
O'Conor, Charles, selected to prosecute 

the Tammany Ring, 629. 
O' Callaghan, Doctor E. B., 105, 145. 
Ogden, Lewis, 331. 

David B., 362. 

John and Richard, 34. 

Ogilvie, Rev. John, 168. 

Old Brick Church, The, 590, 591. 

Democracy, The, 613. 

Ferry, see Peck Slip. 

North Dutch Church, cor. Fulton 

and William Streets, 593, 594, 

note. 

Shakespeare Tavern, 487, 488. 

Sugar House, 253. 

Slip, 246, 473, 481. 

■ Tom's Chop House, 264. 

Warren Mansion, The, 590. 

Wreck Brook, 91. 

Oliver, Andrew, 196. 

Street, 91. 

Onderdonck, John, 170. 

Oneida Lake, 139. 
55 

Oneidas, 108. 

Onondagas, 108, 124. 

Onontio, Indian name of the Governors 

of Canada, 111. 
Ontario, 55. 

Lake, 109. 

Opdyke, Mayor, 543. 

Opera House, Astor Place, 521, 522. 

Orange County, 114, 136. — 

Fort (Albany), 28, 35, 45, 95. 

Prince of, 27, 45, 616. 

Riot, 616, 617. 

Order of Jesus, members of, 108. 
Oriental Stove Works, now occupying 

the former site of St. George's 

Chapel, 170. 
Osborne, Sir Danvers, 164, 171. 
Osgood, Rev. Dr., 348, 639. 
Oswego, 127, 128, 130, 139. 
Otis, James, 192, 193, 196, 243. 
Samuel A., 292. 



Otsego, Lake, 156. 
Owl's Kill, 91. 

Oyster Bay, on Long Island, the limit of 
Dutch Settlements, 148. 

Paas (Passion Week), 70. 

Pacific Ocean, 17. 

Page, William, artist, 637. 

Palatines, 123. 

Palmyra, N. Y., 391. 

Park Theater, 232, 405, 488. 

Park and other Banks, 602, 603. 

Place, 211, 529. 

City Hall, 498. 

St. John's, 12. 



Parker, Jason, drives a mail stage, 188. 
James, an editor, 136. 



Parker's Gazette, 276. 

Passaic River, 187. 

Passage Place, 89. 

Passports, prohibition against travelling 

without, 35. 
Patterson, General, escorts Mrs. General 

Riedesel to a ball, 260 ; sails for 

England, 265. 
Partition Street (Fulton), 184. 
Patroons, 21, 22, 23, 34, 42. 
Patrooneries, 21. 
Paulding, James K., 56, 489. 
Paulus Hook (Jersey City) and New York 

Ferry established, 185. 
Hook (Jersey City), 185, 186, 246. 



Peace of 1667, 108. 
of 1783, 288. 



Peale's Museum, 404. 

Pearl Street, 24, 30, 88, 89, 91, 92, 93, 
115, 165, 232, 284, 299, 318, 321, 
331, 336, 403, 419, 467, 472. 

Street opened through the New 

York Hospital grounds, 599. 

Peet, Harvey P., letter of, to the author. 

fJQQ 

Peck Slip, ' 29, 30, 90, 165, 246. 

Peckham, Wheeler H., 629. 

Peloponnesus, The, 412. 

Peltry, export duty on, increased, 50. 

Penn, William, 113. 

Pennsylvania, 123. 

Pepperell, Sir William, 487. 

Pequods, 31. 

Percival, James Gates, dines with J. F. 

Cooper at the City Hotel, 489. 
Percy, Lord, 250. 
Periodicals, number of, in the United 

States, note, 278. 
Perth Amboy Ferry, stage- boats run to, 

186. 
Peters, Henry, 170. 
Philadelphia, stages established between 

New York and, 186. 
Philipse, Colonel Adolph, 140. 



INDEX. 



131 



Philippe, Louis, teaches school in New 
York, 597. 

Phillips, General, 260, 265. 

Phoenix, Mrs. D., 81. 

Phyfe, D., makes a box from a lop: of 

Erie cedar, for Lafayette, 397. 
Pine Street, 336, 425. 
Pintard, Lewis, 206, 31 7. 

— John, 255. 

Pinxter (Whitsuntide\ 70. 

Pitt, William, 208, 210. 

Pleasure Gardens at Harlem, 85. 

Plymouth Company, 24 

Harbor, 23 

Rock, 18. 

Pneumatic Railroad, 612. 

Poelnitz, Baron, 284. 

Police Regulations, a new code of, enact- 
ed, 114. 

Political Parties in New York, origin of, 
142. 

Pomeroy, General, 244. 

Popish Pretender, 158. 

Popish Plot, 150. 

Popular Government established, by the 
construction of a General As- 
sembly, 113. 

Population of New York, 642, 652. 

Porter, Peter B., 408. 

Portuguese, 148. 

Post Office, 166 ; history of, 516-520. 

Office Building, the New, 601. 

Road, old, 93. 

Doctor, 234. 

Potatoes, Price of Bermuda, 30. 

Potemkin, Prince, 435. 

Potomac River, 128. 

Potter's Field, removal of bodies from, 
537. 

Hill, 91. 

Potter, Bishop Alonzo, 349. 

Powder House, The, 91, note. 

Powell, Thos., a steamboat, 352, 353, 
note. 

Powle's (Paulus) Hook, 375. 

Pownal, Thomas, 190. 

Pratt, Chief Justice, 191, 195. 

Presbyterian (Wall Street l Church, 165. 

President of the United States, official 
title of the, 294. 

Preston, Colonel, 227. 

Prevost, General, 182. 

Price of Provisions, 184. 

Priestly, Doctor, 422. 

Printing House Square, 639. 

Printz, Gov., 42. 

Prison Ship, the horrors of the " Jersey," 
255, 256, note. 

Prisoners, neglect and ill-treatment of, 
255. 

Prison Weekly Dietary, 255. 



Privateer, La Garce, 43. 

Procession in honor of founding the Re- 
public, 282-290. 

Provincial Congress, 243, 245. 

Provost, Old, see Debtors' Prison. 

Bishop, 304. 

Rev. Samuel, 168. 

David, a Tobacco Inspector at 

Manhattan, and Commissary at 
Fort Good Hope, 148. 

Ready Money (David), the Long 

Island Smuggler, 488. 

Provost's Tomb, Jones's Wood, 491. 

Prussia, 289. 

Public burial-ground in the entrench- 
. ments, 255. 

Public School Society, 345. 

Public Wells established, 569. 

Puritans, 18, 31, 654. 

Putnam, General, 244, 246. 

Mrs. Washington, 74. 



Quakers, 22. 

Quarantine Establishment at Bedloe's Is- 
land, 139. 

Buildings on Staten Island de- 
stroyed by the populace, 537. 

Quebec, 113, 214, 244. 

Queen's County, 114., 

Queen Street (Pearl), 284, 298, 300. 

Quider, Indian name of Peter Schuyler, 
119. 

Quilting Bees, 69. 

Rabbit Island, 97. 
Raneleagh Gardens, 232, 339. 
Raritan River, 186. 
Indians, 48. 



" Ready Money Provost," 488, 489, note, 

Reade Street, 232, 335. 

Real Estate Auctions, 606. 

Rector Street, 139. 

Red Jacket (Sagoyewatha) visits New 
York, and has his portrait paint- 
ed, 416 ; Doctor Francis de- 
scribes his personal appearance, 
417-419. 

Reformed Dutch Church, 24. 

Reid, an Assemblyman, 199. 

Captain Mayne, relates an anec- 
dote of Lafayette, 380. 

Religious Denominations of New York, 
641. 

Rensselaer, Killian Van, 25. 

Rensselaerwyck (Albany), 44. 

Renwick, Doctor, 365. 

Reservoir on Fifth Avenue, 505. 

Distributing, 501. 

Restless, the first vessel built in New 
Amsterdam. 15. 

Revenue, Public, of New Netherland, 66. 



132 



INDEX. 



Review of administrations of various 

Governors, 141. 
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 455. 
Rhoda, Lewis, first man killed by a 

Steamboat accident, 356. 
Rhode Island, 197. 
Richards, T. Addison, 637. 
Richmond Hill, 348, 415, 440. 

County, 114. 

Riedesel, General, 256, 268. 

Mrs. General, her history of the 

Siege of New York, and inci- 
dents connected therewith, 256- 
270. 
Riots : 

Abolitionist, 460. 

Astor Place, 520. 

Boston, 199. 

Bread, 536. 

Dead Rabbit, 534. 

Doctor's Mob, 234-236. 

Draft, 368, 461, 539. 

Election, 456-460. 

Five Points, 467, 468. 

Flour, 493-499. 

'Longshoremen's, 486. 

Macready, 520-528. 

Negro, of 1712, 272. 

Negro, of 1741, 147-152. 

Orange, 616, 6l7. 

Police, 532. 

Quarantine, 537. 

Stamp Act, 197-199. 

Stone Cutters', 466. 

Trinity Church, 359-365, note. 
Riots, year of, 456. 
Rivington, James, editor and owner New 

York Gazette, 277, 278. 
Roach, Thomas, 319. 
Roberts, Marshall O., 637. 
Robinson, Thomas, one of the Sons of 
Liberty, 201. 

Colonel, 167. 

Rochambeau, Count, 338. 

Rochefort, 113. 

Rodgers, Rev. Doctor, 421. 

Roelandsen, Adam, a school-master, 24, 

32. 
Rogers, Doctor, 234. 
Roosevelt Street, 91. 

Hon. R. B., 620, 624. 

■ — Jacobus, 91. 

Rose Street, 461. 
Rossa, O'Donovan, 631. 
Rostopchin, General, 248. 
Ruggles, Timothy. L98. 
Rushmore, [saac, his experiences in cross- 
ing the ferries in early times, 
354. 
Russia, 14. 
Rutgers Street, 13. 



Rutgers' Farm, 231. 
- Mr., 232. 
Colonel, 340. 



Ryker, Hendrick, 90. 

St. Benicio, a ship, 50, 51. 

St. Clair, Governor, 395. 

St. Frederick, Fort, 132. 

St. George Building, 169. 

St. George's Chapel, 166-169, 360. 

St. George, a ship, 271. 

St. John's, 374. 

St. John's Park, 12, 598, 599. 

St. James Coffee House, 488. 

St. James's Chronicle, 227. 

St. John's Day, 219. 

St. Lawrence River, 109. 

St. Nicholas, Old Church of, 78, 475. 

St. Michael'sDay, 116. 

St. Paul's Church, 232, 304, 333, 366. 

St. Petersburg, 436. 

St. Philip's Church (Colored), 463, 465. 

St. Tammany, see Tammany. 

Sagoyewatha (Red Jacket >, 416, 417, 419. 

Sam Francis's Tavern (Black Sam's), 231, 

298. 
Sandford, General, 525. 
Sand Hills, 13. 
Sand's Point, 375. 
Sands. Robert C., 489,637. 

Juliana Elmore, murder of, 342. 



Sandy Hook, 11, 55, 67, 97, 380. 
Santa Claus (Christ-Kinkle Day, 70. 
Sappokanikke (Greenwich), 1<>1. 
Sargeant, Charles and John, 203. 
Saratoga Battle Ground, 592. 
- Battle of, 256. 
Springs, 74, 374. 



troops captured at, 268. 

Schaats, Doinine, !>.">. 

Schermerhorn, Cornelius, 170. 

Schenectady, L20. 

Sobieffelin, S. 15., 637. 

School of Painting, <»37; of Sculpture, 

637. 
Schout Fiscal, 20, 77. 
Schultz, Jackson S.. 613. 
Schutter's Island, 10 1. 
Schuyler, Peter, 1 19, 123, 224. 
Philip, 237, 245. 



Fort, 188. 

Sconce, 74. 

Scott, John Morin, 194, 219. 

Captain, 60. 

Scudder's Museum, 330, 405. 

Sea Mew, The, a ship, 20. 

Sears, Isaac, a leader of the Sons of 

Liberty, 201. 
Seguine, Joseph, 376. 
Seigneuries, 21. 
Senate, first meeting of the, 292. 



INDEX, 



133 



Senecas, 108, 124, 139. 

Seneca Chief, the first canal-boat, 390. 

Seventh Regiment, 374, 617. 

Seawant, see Wampum. 

Seymour, Horatio, 408, 545. 

Shaera Straat, see Broadway. 

Shakespeare Tavern, 488-490. 

Sharpe, Rev. John, 131. 

Sheldon's Dragoons, 301. 

Sherman, Roger, 292, 303, 489. 

Shoe and Leather Bank, 603. 

Shoemaker's Land, 90. 

Simonson, Daniel, carries the mail from 

Staten Island to New York on 

the ice, 376. 
Sims, Doctor J. M., founds the State 

"Woman's Hospital, 537. 
Singeron, Auguste Louis de, 428-430. 
Sing Sing, 466, 501. 
Sirius, a steamship, 325. 
Six Nations, treaty with the, 124. 

Nations, 127, 165. 

Slave Market at the foot of "Wall Street, 

149. 

Trade, History of, 147-151. 

Sloap Banck (Bunk), 19, 75. 

Sloat Lane, 404, 419. 

Sloughter, Colonel Henry, Governor of 

New York, 118, 142. 
Small-Pox, 159. 

" Small Citizenship," record of, 57. 
Smith, William, 132, 134, 194, 220, 242 262. 

T., 219. 

— Doctor, 234. 

Peter, 274. 

Richard, 103. 

Colonel W. S., 309. 

Colonel, 498. 

Smit's Valey, 97. 

Smuggling abolished, 49. 

Snake Hill, N. J., 361. 

Society Library, N. Y., 131, 345, 649. 

for the Reformation of Juvenile 

Delinquents, 638. 
Soldiers' (Martyrs' ) Monument, 515 
Sons of Liberty, 192, 199, 200, 206, 207, 

212, 216, 224, 225, 243. 
South Street, 29, 192, 480, 481. 

River, 35, 42, 52. 

Soutberg, a ship, 19, 24, 28. 
Spain, 24, 50. 
Spotswood, Governor, 127. 
Spring Street Church, 462, 463. 

Street, 342, 463. 

Street Market, 378. 

Spuyten Duyvel, 102. 
Stadt Huvs (City Hall) of New Amster- 
dam, 37, 68, 89. 
Stage Boats first introduced, 186. 
Line started from New York to 

Philadelphia, 187. 



Stages first run between New York and 
Albany, 188. 

line extended to Utica, 188. 

Stamp Act, 195, 199, 200, 202, 203, 206- 
208, 210, 211, 213, 227, 238, 239. 

Stanwix, Fort (Rome), 139. 344. 

Staple Right granted, 26. 

Star Chamber, 137. 

" Stars and Stripes," The, displaces the 
British Standard, 273. 

Staten Island, 48, 55, 67, 97, 122, 182, 
376, 474, 537. 

Island and Bergen Ferry estab- 
lished, 185. 

States-General, the Dutch, 15, 17, 23, 34, 46. 

State Right, 51. 

Arsenal, 457, 530. 

Street, 92, 125, 318. 

Prisoners, 378. 

Steadman, the historian, 252. 

Steam navigation, 348. 

Steamer, the first, the Clermont, con- 
structed under Fulton's nominal 
superintendence, 351, 352. 

Steddiford, Captain, 299. 

Steenwyck, Comelis, 57, 61. 

Steenwyck's Orchard, 93. 

Steeregraft, 92. 

Steuben, Baron, 235, 304, 312, 441 

Stevenson, Doctor J., 360. 

Stevens, Doctor, 234, 
— Horatio G., 327. 

Colonel John, 355, 386, 461. 



Stewart, A. T., 232, 603. 
Stirling, General Lord, 247, 489. 
Lady, ~" 



Stoffelson, Jacob, of Pavonia, one of the 

Twelve Men, 25. 
Stokes, Captain, 299. 

James, 608. 

Edward S., shoots James Fisk, Jr., 

634. 
Stone, Colonel William L., 282, 331, 

389, 390, 413, 419, 483, 498, 507, 

508, 638. 

Mrs., 490. 

Street, 30, 92, 93, 481, 509, 510. 

Stoneall, J. C. (Alderman), keeps the 

Shakespeare Tavern, 492. 
Strycker, J. Gerritsen, 57. 
Stuart, R. L., 608. 
Sturges, Jonathan, 608. 
Stuyvesant, Governor Peter, 48, 49, 50, 

55, 56, 60, 62, 65. 

Mrs., wife of Governor, 148. 

Pear-tree, 596. 



Stuvvesant's " Bowerie," 93. 
Suaaendael, 26. 
Sub-Treasury, 507. 
Suckanhock sucki, 38 
Suffolk County, 148. 



134 



INDEX. 



Sullivan, General, 217. 
Sumpter, General, 416. 
Swamp, The, 90, 91. 
Swart, Jacob, 94. 
Swartwout, Captain, 299. 
Swedes, their connection with the early- 
history of America, 42. 
Sweden, 42, 289. 
Sweeney, Peter B., 620. 
Syracuse, 391. 

Tabernacle, New York, 494. 

Tailer, Colonel, 129. 

Talcott, a Mr., holds a conversation with 
" Ready Money" Provost, 488. 

Talleyrand, 422. 

Tallmadge, F. A., 528. 

Tamkill, 83. 

Tammany organization, 328-330. 

Frauds, etc., exposure of, 618-635. 

Hall, 336. 

Museum, 330. 

Tammanund, the Patron Saint of Tam- 
many, history of, 328. 

" Tap," The, 487. 

Tappan, Gov. Kieft sends sloops to, 36. 

Lewis, 461. 

Arthur, 461. 

Taverns, Licenses for, first issued, 51. 

Tavern, the first erected in New Nether- 
land, 37. 

Tayler, Asher, 375, 456, 483. 

Taylor, Jeremy, 654. 

" Tea Water Pump," The, in Chatham 
Street, 500, 573. 

Temple, Sir John, 236. 

Teunissen, Jan., 98, 101. 

Thames Street, 165, 264. 

Thayendagea (Joseph Brant), 415. 

Thirtieth Street, 613. 

Thirty-first Street, 348. 

Thirty-sixth Street, 93. 

Thomson, Charles, 293. 

Thompson, Launt, a sculptor, 637. 

Ticonderoga, Fort, 214, 593. 

" Tiger" and " Fortune," two Dutch 
ships, 14. 

Tilden, S. J., 629. 

Tillary, Doctor, 425. 

Tombs, The, 12, 271. 

Tompkins Square, 335. 

Daniel D. 374, 379. 

Tontine Coffee House, history of, 318, 
319-327. 

Hotel Association (Fifth Ward\ 

320. 

Town Hall, 171. 

Townsend, Robert C, 466. 

Trading Charter, 15. 

Treaty of Peace between the States 
General and Great Britain, 68. 



Treaty of Peace between United State! 
and Great Britain, 272. 
with Indians, 47. 



Trenton, Battle of, 295. 

Tribune Building, 337 ; threatened by 

rioters, 543. 
Trinity Church, 68, 83, 121, 166, 252, 333. 

Church Riot, 359-365. 

Place, 600. 



Troup, Robert, 287, 341. 

Tromp, Admiral, 54. 

Troy, N. Y. 186. 

Trumbull, John, 587. 

Tryon, Governor William, 231, 237, 240, 

244, 245, 257, 265. 
Tucker, Thomas Tudor, 292. 
Tuliva Mico, 329. 
Turk's Head, London, compared with the 

Shakespeare Tavern, 488, 491, 

492. 
Tweed, William M., 613, 620, 629. 
Twenty-third Street, 609. 
Tyng, Rev. Dr., 170. 

Ulster County, 114, 136. 
Union Bank, 603. 

Square, 335, 514, 657. 

Hotel, 341. 

League Club, 613. 

of New England Colonies, 239. 



United Colonies, The, resist the execu- 
tion of the Tea Duties, 240. 

New Netherland Company, 16, 21. 

Provinces, 35, 53. 

States Sanitary Commission, 638. 

States Navy Yard, Brooklyn, 335. 



University of New York, 466, 507. 
Utica, 188. 
Utrecht, Peace of, 126, 132. 
Ury, John, a priest and school-master, im- 
plicated in the Negro Plot, 151. 

Valentine, David T., 126, 152, 640. 

Van Birkel, Mr., 441. 

Van Burggh, Jan Gilleson, 56. 

Johannes Pietersen, 57. 

Karl, 57. 

Van Cortlandt, Stephanus, first native- 
born Mayor of N. Y., 107, 117. 

Gen. Phiiip, conducts Lafayette to 

the chair of Louis XVI., 386. 

Van Couwenhoven, Jacob, 57. 

Pieter, 57. 

Van Dam, Rip, 76, 91, 132, 138. 

Van Dyck, Captain, 298. 

Van Ecke, Domine, 95. 

Van Home, Gerrit, 140. 
Major, 299. 



Van Der Huyghens, Schout Fiscal, 46, 48. 
Van Rensselaer, General Stephen, 390. 

408. 



INDEX. 



135 



Vtiii Rensselaer, Johannes, the first pa- 
troon, 44. 

Killian, 25. 

Van Schaick, Henry, 206, 219. 

Peter, 219. 

Van Tienhoven, Cornells, 32. 

r Mrs., 57. 

Van Twiller, Wouter, Governor, 24, 27, 
32, 43, 24, 25, 26, 27, 43, 92. 

Van Vorst, Anna, 270. 

Hooper C, 270, 649. 

Van Wyck, Laurisen Cornelisen, 57. 

Van Zye, Captain, 67. 

Vanderbilt, Jolrn, 376. 

VanderclifT's Orchard (John Street), 89, 
90. 

Vandergrist and Van Dyck, 92. 

Vanderlyn, the pupil of Stuart, 516. 

Vande water Street, 471. 

Varennes, Baron De, 422. 

Varick, Richard, 322. 

Street, 13, 462, 463, 464, 609. 

Vasseur, Aug-uste L., Secretary to La- 
fayette, 379. 

Venerable Society for Propagating the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts, 252. 

Vergennes, Count De, 431. 

Verhulst, William, 20. 

Verplanck, Gulian, 139, 272, 318, 321, 336. 
Gulian C. 272, 345, 420-455. 

Vesey Street, 355. 

Vessels, Toll levied on, 45. 

Vigne, Jean, 96. 

Virginia, 11, 15, 16, 31, 35, 49, 110, 222. 

Virtue & Yorston, house of, 636, 637. 

" Vlackte," The, or Flat, 91. 

Vly Market (Market in the Marsh), 89, 
note. 

Volckertsen, Captain, 14. 

Waldron, W. J., 330. 

Wales, Prince of, visits New York, 538. 

Coast of, 48. 

Walker Street, 529, 603. 

Wallace, Hugh, 221. 

Walloons, 18, 22. 

Wall Street, 24, 68, 115, 117, 165, 231, 

263, 264, 272, 318, 336, 344, 419, 

421, 425, 471, 476, 477, 480, 481, 

482. 

Street Church, 420. 

Walphat's Meadow, 91. 

Walton, Jacob, 221. 

Wampum, Sevant, or Zeawant, taken as 

the standard of value, and used 

as currency, 29, 31, 36, 38, 42, 

64, 77. 
Wardell, Robert, 170. 
Ward's Island, bodies from the Potter's 

Field removed to, 537. 
Ward, John Q,. A., a sculptor, 637. 



Warren, Admiral Sir Peter, 150, 153, 

167, 271, 590. 
Mansion, Old, history destruction 

of, 590. 

Streets, 153, 612. • 

Joseph, 229. 

War of 1812, 367-370, 516. 
Washington, General George, 166, 244. 

245, 247, 249, 272, 281, 291, 294- 

317. 

Lady, 315-317 

Hotel, 152. 

Medal, 417. 

Parade Ground, 14, 335, 406, 537. 

Street, 463. 

Fort, 250, 255. 

a steam-boat, 393. 

Monument, 514. 

Watch House, 336. 

Water Gate, 89. 

Street, 29, 87, 88, 92, 231, 318, 

344, 472, 473, 477, 480, 481. 
Watkins, Rev. Hezekiah, 137. 
Watts, Hon. John (Recorder), 271, 284, 

318. 
Mary, marries Sir John Johnson, 

271. 
Watt, James, 349. 
AVay-house, 88. 
Wayland, Francis, gives an account as an 

eye-witness of the reception of 

the news of Peace by the citizens 

of New York, 369. 
Wayman, William, 136, 276. 
Webster, Noah, 287, 422. 
Daniel, 412. 



Weed, Thurlow, 352, 390. 
Weehawken Duelling Ground, 348. 
Weeks, Ezra, keeps the City Hotel, 308, 

342. 
Levi, nephew of Ezra Weeks, 

tried for the murder of Miss 

Sands, 342. 
Weigh-house, 88. 
Weir, Robert W., an artist, 416. 
Wellington, Duke of, 601. 
Westchester County, 148, 504, 
Westfield, disastrous explosion of the, 

635. 
West Indies, 59, 166. 
India Company, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 



25, 27, 31, 36, 42, 45, 50, 58, 59, 

63, 83, 103. 
Westminster, GS. 

Abbey, 374. 

Wesley Chapel, 211, 420. 

Westphalia, 93. 

West Point, 352. 

Wetmore, Prosper M., 348, 388, 463, 48& 

AV,v, Captain, 14, 18, 20. 

White Conduit House, 340. 



ISO 



INDEX. 



White Street, 457, 604. 

Whitehall, N. Y., the funeral cortege of 

Gen. Montgomery halts at, 373. 

Street, 24, 30, 87, 88, 92, 125. 

Whitefield, Rev. George, 420. 

Wieringen Shoals, 98. 

Wignell, an actor at John St. Theatre, 

338. 
Wiley, William, 201. 
Willett, Colonel M., 318, 328, 344. 
Willoe, Captain, 260. 
William Street, 90, 92, 93, 115, 404, 421, 

422, 472, 474, 480, 481. 

and Mary, 141. 

William sburgh, 356. 

Willis, Nathaniel P., 636. 

Willy, Noe, 91. 

Windmill Hill, 339. 

Winthrop, Governor, 31, 43. 

Wolfe, General, 374. 

Wolfert's Valley, 91. 

Woodbridge, N. J., early stages run to, 

186, 
Wood Creek, 139 



Woodhull, Caleb S., 520. 

Wooley, Rev. Charles, 105. 

Wooster Street, 342, 609. 

World's Fair, 528. 

Worth, General W. J., monument to, 516. 

Wren, Sir Christopher, 601. 

Yamoyden, a poem, 490. 

Yellow Fever, 122, 330-332, 377-379. 

York, James, Duke of, 60. 

Young Men's Christian Association of 

New York City, its aims, etc., 

606-609, 638. 
Young, Thomas, 408. 

Zabriskie, Alderman, 384. 

Zantberg Hills, The, 93. 

Zantzinger, Captain, 397. 

" Zealandia" (Wall and William Streets), 

92. 
Zeeland, 95. 
Zeawant, see Wampum. 
Zelo, Tzarzko, 436. 
Zenger, John Philip, 133, 134, 135, 136. 



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